Division of Physics, Mathematics & Astronomy  

David Hitlin

Professor of Physics

Experimental High Energy Physics

CV/Biographical Sketch

                              List of Publications

                              Recent Publications

                        Contact Information

                                 Office: 367 Lauritsen

                                 Mail Stop: 356-48 

                                 Telephone: (626) 395 6694

                                 Mobile: (626) 484 0222 

                                 Fax: (626) 395 8728

                                 Email: hitlin@caltech.edu

                                       HEP Administrator: Tracy Mikuriya

                                 Phone: (626) 395 2340

                                       Email: tmikuriy@caltech.edu

Working closely with Frank Porter for many years, I have probed the flavor sector of the Standard Model by making increasingly precise measurements of the production and decay properties of heavy quarks and leptons. These experiments, carried out over the last several decades with the Mark II (at SPEAR, PEP and SLC), Mark III, Crystal Ball, BES-II, SLD and BABAR detectors, have been crucial in establishing the validity of the Standard Model flavor sector ansatz. In particular, our measurement of the CP asymmetry in B⁰ decays at BABAR was cited in the award of the 2008 Nobel Prize to Kobayashi and Maskawa.

Our current program comprises two novel and extremely sensitive probes of physics beyond the Standard Model:  the Mu2e experiment at Fermilab, a search for evidence of charged lepton flavor violation in muon-to-electron conversion and the nascent LDMX experiment at SLAC, a very sensitive search for hidden sector dark matter particles, as well as continued analysis of BABAR data.

Mu2e is a new experiment at Fermilab whose aim is the discovery of charged lepton flavor violation via the process of muon to electron conversion. Mu2e has a sensitivity four orders of magnitude greater than the limits set by existing experiments, bringing it into the regime of CLFV predictions of many Standard Model extensions.

Caltech is working on the design and construction of the crystal calorimeter system of Mu2e. We have responsibilities in the area of calorimeter geometry, photosensor development, crystal and readout specification and testing, modeling, the calibration system and the online and data analysis systems.

                               The Mu2e Conceptual Design Report

                                     The  Mu2e Technical Design Report

Given the stringent limits that now exist on GeV-scale dark matter, the mass region between 1 MeV and 1 GeV has now become a focus for sensitive new dark matter searches. Dark matter in this mass range can be efficiently produced in accelerator experiments; LDMX (the Light Dark Matter eXperiment) has been proposed to run at the new LESA beam line at SLAC, using 4 GeV, and eventually, 8 GeV electrons.

    LDMX has a straightforward apparatus design, utilizing existing technologies to avoid a lengthy development phase, and to allow the experiment to begin when the LESA beamline is complete. The experiment has unrivaled sensitivity to many types of dark matter force carriers; it will be able to test a great variety of dark matter models down to the thermal relic limit.

                                    The Light Dark Matter eXperiment