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Associate 2004-05

Mats A Selen

Physics

AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF NUCLEAR FORCES USING CHARMED QUARKS

Professor Selen is a high-energy physics experimentalist, a leader in designing and implementing the ultrafast electronics required to distinguish and extract, in real time, the interesting physics events produced by the huge particle detectors used in this field. Among his current research priorities is the CLEO experiment at the Cornell Electron Storage Ring (CESR). This project studies properties of the bottom and charmed quarks and the tau lepton. Its primary goals are (a) understanding the origin of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa mixing matrix, for which no dynamical theory exists, (b) understanding the time reversal symmetry violation, which appears to be a necessary prerequisite to the observed matter-antimatter asymmetry of the universe, and (c) tests of the “standard model” of particle physics, whose very precise predictions have been tested very accurately but which is known, nonetheless, not to be correct.

Professor Selen is currently exploring the effects of quantum mechanical interference in the decays of mesons containing charmed quarks, using data collected at the CLEO experiment. His recognized expertise in data acquisition led to his being placed in charge of the design and construction of the event trigger for the upgraded CLEO detector at CESR. For the 2004-05 academic year he will serve as spokesperson for the CLEO collaboration, a contribution made possible by his Center appointment.