Title:  Search for Muon to Electron Conversion at J-PARC – the COMET Experiment

Speaker: Yoshitaka Kuno (Osaka Univ.)

Abstract:

Muon to electron conversion in a muonic atom is a process of charged lepton flavor violation (CLFV). The COMET experiment aims to search for muon to electron conversion at J-PARC with single-event sensitivity of 3×10^{-17} which is about 10,000 improvement over the current limit. Recently the COMET experiment has taken a staged approach, COMET Phase-I, as the first phase, aims at a single-event sensitivity of 3×10^{-15} with a partial part of the full muon beam line and a Phase-I dedicated detector in the order of about 10^{6} sec. The funds for COMET Phase-I has been approved as the supplemental budget, and the construction has started in 2013. The physics run is expected to start in 2016. The COMET Phase-II will follow immediately. In this talk, I will describe physics motivation of CLFV, and the details of COMET Phase-I / Phase-II together with the current status.

Title: Current status of XENON dark matter search

Speaker: Junji Naganoma (Rice University)

Abstract:

I will present results from XENON100 dark matter search, status of XENON1T design and construction, and ongoing R&D project using liquid xenon.

Title: Results from Daya Bay

Speaker: Lisa Whitehead (UH)

Abstract:

Experimental observations have established that neutrinos undergo flavor oscillations as they propagate due to quantum mechanical mixing between the mass states and flavor states. The Daya Bay reactor neutrino experiment has observed the disappearance of electron-type antineutrinos from nuclear reactor cores at the Daya Bay Power Plant located in China. This observation allowed Daya Bay to make a measurement of the last neutrino mixing angle, theta_13, which was previously only known to be small in comparison to the other neutrino mixing angles. In this talk, I will discuss the most recent results from Daya Bay, a measurement of the energy dependence of reactor antineutrino disappearance.

Title: LHC: Shedding Light on the Dark Sectors of the Universe

Speaker: Alexei Safonov (TAMU)

Abstract:

This talk will discuss recent searches for evidence of new light bosons
decaying to pairs of muons using the LHC collision data collected by the CMS
experiment at CERN. These particles are predicted in the extensions of the
Standard Model explaining the discrepancy in the satellite experiments’
measured positron fraction by the annihilation of TeV-scale dark matter in
the galactic halo as well as by the Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric models,
which address several of the major issues of conventional SUSY. In these
scenarios, the new bosons are associated with new hidden (dark) sectors and
only very weakly couple to the Standard Model particles making them
virtually undetectable in earlier experiments. The LHC can provide access to
these particles via the production of Higgs bosons that can contain these
new hidden particles in their decay products. Searches for the new boson
decays using muon pairs provides an exceptional sensitivity due to the
striking signature and low background contamination. This analysis relies
heavily on the excellent performance of the detector’s muon system. Most of
the final LHC dataset will be collected at high luminosity and therefore the
ultimate sensitivity of the LHC will be determined by the performance of the
detectors during that time. In the second part of the talk, we will discuss
the CMS plans for the upgrades of the muon detectors and the expected
performance in the high luminosity LHC regime.

Title: Indirect Searches for Dark Matter with the Fermi Large Area Telescope

Speaker: Andrea Albert (SLAC)

Abstract:

There is overwhelming evidence that non-baryonic dark matter
constitutes ~27% of the energy density of the universe.  Weakly
Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) are promising dark matter
candidates that may produce gamma rays via annihilation or decay
detectable by the Fermi Large Area Telescope (Fermi LAT).  A detection
of WIMPs would also indicate the existence of physics beyond the
Standard Model.  I will present recent results from indirect WIMP
searches by the Fermi LAT Collaboration.  I will also give a detailed
presentation of the recent Fermi-LAT Collaboration search for spectral
lines, including a discussion of what we found when investigating the
reported tentative signal in the Galactic center at 130 GeV.