The Caltech High Energy Physics effort consists of several very active groups in both theoretical and experimental physics.
The theory effort includes particle physics, particle astrophysics and string theory.
The experimental effort includes Large Hadron Collider physics, neutrino physics, flavor physics and detector R&D.
The experimental particle physics group, consisting of five faculty, is involved in several major experimental efforts: the high-energy-frontier CMS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (Newman, Spiropulu), the neutrino physics experiments NOvA and DUNE (Patterson) at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, and two flavor experiments: Mu2e experiment at Fermilab and BABAR at the SLAC National Accelerator Center, (Hitlin, Porter). Newman’s computing group also develops grid computing and networking for CMS and the other LHC experiments.
Scintillating crystal development is the focus of the detector R&D effort led by Ren-Yuan Zhu.
The experimental particle astrophysics group has one faculty member (Golwala) who is engaged in the search for Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP) dark matter with the SuperCDMS Sudan experiment and design of SuperCDMS SNOWLAB experiment.
These efforts greatly benefit from the involvement of an outstanding group of postdoctoral scholars and fellows, staff scientists, technical and administrative personnel, and Caltech graduate and undergraduate students.
