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Contact Inform
Tel : 972-8-9342538
Fax : 972-8-9362745
Bldg.:K.B. Weissman Institute of
Physical Sciences
Rm.: 330
Email :
giora.mikenberg@weizmann.ac.il
OPAL
ATLAS
Secretariat:
Corinne Hasdai
Tel : 972-8-9343835
Email:
corinne.hasdai@weizmann.ac.il
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Giora Mikenberg
Professor
Department of Particle Physics
Weizmann Institute,
76100 Rehovot,
Israel
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Current Research Interests
Although the universe in which we live
looks very complex, with a large
variety of different molecules and four forces (Nuclear, Electro-magnetic,
Weak, which is responsible for radioactivity, and Gravity), it is assumed that at the beginning of the universe,
there was a single, unified
force. With the decrease of the collision energies during the expansion of the universe, this force split into the
four forces we know now.
Using the largest particle accelerator in the
world, the LEP machine with its 27Km
circumference and four experiments (one of the four, OPAL has a strong participation of the Weizmann Experimental
High Energy Group), where collision
energies of 200GeV are obtained, one has been able to show that the electromagnetic and the weak forces
are a one single force. Furthermore,
one has shown in these experiments that the strength of the electroweak and of the nuclear force change
with the collision energy. By
extrapolating the change in strength, one finds out that they do not meet at a single energy, unless a new family
of particles exists with masses
close to the collision energies that are available in the LEP machine or in the future LHC accelerator that
will start operations in 2005. Two very
important unknowns remain in this picture: for the unification of the electromagnetic and weak force to
take place a new type of particle
has to exist that provides the mass to all other point-like particles in nature, the Higgs Boson; while to be
able to achieve the unification with the nuclear force, a new family of
particles that provide a symmetry between particles that make ordinary matter and those that transport
forces, called Super-Symmetric particles, should be found. With the support of
the Israeli Science Foundation
Center for the Search of the Higgs Boson at LEP and LHC and the Benoziyo Center for High Energy Physics,
the Weizmann group working at LEP has
been searching for the Higgs boson (see report by E. Gross) and for Super-Symmetric particles (see
report by E. Duchovni). In
parallel to this activity at the presently running accelerator (LEP), I have also been involved in the search for the
lowest mass states of the
Super-Symmetric particles (Charginos and Neutralinos). The group is also involved in the development and
construction of particle detectors and
their corresponding trigger and readout electronics for a system that will provide the trigger for the
searches of Higgs and Super-Symmetric
particles in one of the two experiments that will run at the future accelerator, LHC. The detectors are based
in a technology developed at the
Weizmann Institute, that has been used in the LEP accelerator called Thin-Gap Chambers (TGC), that has
been modified for large area
detectors with the best time resolution ever achieved in wire chamber particle detectors. This activity takes
place with the participation of D.
Lellouch and L. Levinson. A full description of the results achieved in the LEP activity can be
found at:
http://www.cern.ch/Opal/
while for the LHC activity at
http://www.weizmann.ac.il/~fhatlas/tgc.html.
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