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Research
Summary:
Professor
Swain is an experimental high energy physicist with a
strong interest in related theory. He is involved in three
major experiments:
1.
L3 at the LEP accelerator in CERN, Geneva, Switzerland:
The Large Electron-Positron collider (LEP) collides electrons
and positrons (antimatter counterparts of electrons) in
order to probe the structure of matter and its interactions
at the highest possible energies. Using the L3 detector,
the group tries to reconstruct what happens in these collisions,
with a special emphasis on understanding how two seemingly
disparate forces, electromagnetism and the weak interaction,
can be seen as different aspects of the same thing. Much
of the group's work has been centered on this physics,
especially using the tau lepton, a mysterious heavy cousin
of the electron, the reason for whose existence we have,
as yet, not the slightest idea.
2.
CMS at the LEP accelerator in CERN, Geneva, Switzerland:
The Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) at the Large Hadron
Collider (LHC) is planned to run after LEP in the early
part of the next century and will extend the group's search
into the nature of matter and enable them to address the
fundamental question of the origin of mass, and test many
theoretical ideas including supersymmetry. Involvements
include software and simulation, physics studies, and
research and development for the electromagnetic calorimeter
readout.
3.
The Pierre Auger Project: Together with colleagues
from Argentina, the group has been looking at applications
of high energy physics to cosmic ray astrophysics. In
particular, the observation of cosmic rays of extremely
high energy (far greater than that of any terrestrial
accelerator) poses a great mystery, with no plausible
mechanism known for their acceleration. This work is both
theoretical in a general framework, and tied to the Pierre
Auger Project which consists of giant observatories to
be built in Argentina and Utah.
Recent
Publications:
1. L3
Collaboration (S. Reucroft , J. Swain, et al.), "Study
Of The W+ W- Gamma Process And Limits On Anomalous Quartic
Gauge Boson Couplings At LEP", Phys. Lett. B
527:29-38, (2002).
2. S.
Reucroft and J. Swain, An Introduction to Science (Second
Edition), McGraw-Hill/Primis, 70pp (2000), ISBN 0-07-246855-6.
3. J.
Swain, "Anomalous Electroweak Couplings of the Tau
and Tau Neutrinp, Proceedings of the Sixth International
Workshop on Tau LEPton Physics (TAU2000), Victoria, B.C.,
Canada, September 18-21, 2000 Nucl. Phys. Proc. Suppl.
98 (2001) 351. |
