EVA halkiadakis |
|
University of Rochester |
An experimentalist's view of particle physics
at the energy frontier
Cardwell 102
Tuesday, March 3, 2005
4:30 p.m.
Fermilab's Tevatron is currently the highest energy proton-anti-proton collider in the world, until the Large Hadron Collider at CERN turns on in 2007. CDF is one of two large multipurpose detectors designed to detect these high energy collisions, and will allow us to study the fundamental building blocks of nature.
The W and Z bosons, the top quark and the yet-to-be discovered Higgs boson are the most massive particles in the Standard Model. W and Z boson measurements are significant probes of the Standard Model and the prediction of the Higgs boson mass hinges on the precise measurements of the W boson and top quark masses. I will describe the characteristics of the W and Z bosons and the top quark as we identify them in the CDF detector and how we measure their properties. I will review the status of a few of these measurements from the CDF collaboration from the ongoing Run II of the Tevatron.