k High Energy Physics Seminar Abstract: Chris Ainsley

University of Pennsylvania
Department of Physics and Astronomy
High Energy Physics Seminar


An alternative determination of the LEP beam energy & Calorimetry for the ILC
Chris Ainsley
Cambridge University


Abstract


One of the principal objectives of the LEP II program was the precise determination of the mass of the W boson. The resolution on the W mass was greatly improved by employing kinematic fits, in which the constraints of energy and momentum conservation were imposed. An accurate knowledge of the LEP beam energy was therefore of paramount importance, since it set the scale for the W mass measurement. Constrained kinematic fits will have less applicability at the ILC because of beamstrahlung in the high electric field densities of the colliding bunches. Nevertheless, excellent jet-energy resolution will be a mandatory requirement for the ILC detector, not least so that hadronic decays of Z and W bosons can be distinguished effectively. This places stringent requirements on the calorimetry.

In the first part of this talk, I will review a novel technique developed to cross-check the standard LEP energy calibration through the use of physics events of the type e+e- -> Z gamma with Z -> ffbar, an approach that may well have a role to play at the ILC. I will then move on to discuss how a highly granular calorimeter system for the ILC detector, with the unprecedented ability to image showers, is being developed by the CALICE collaboration, in the quest to achieve the ultimate in jet energy-resolution.