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The 8th Shanghai Particle Physics Masterclass

March 26, 2018

The 8th Shanghai Particle Physics Masterclass

On March 16th, a group of Physics enthusiasts from the 11th & 12th grades of SHSID traveled to Shanghai Concordia International School to attend the annual Physics Masterclass, a CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) activity designed to immerse high school students in the field of particle physics, an area commonly considered too difficult for their age. After an introduction on the Large Hadron Collider, the largest structure ever built by man, which is built for accelerating protons to near-light speed, and analyzing the decaying mass created by the massive amounts of energy created by the collisions of these particles, the students learned how to analyze the results. The young scientists learned to measure the mass of the Z Boson using pen and paper, and then used computers to analyze actual data given by CERN, identifying collisions to determine whether a W, Z, or Higgs Boson was created, and then determining the mass of the various Bosons.

In the afternoon, the masterclass traveled to the largest scientific apparatus in Shanghai, the Synchrotron Radiation Lab, which uses magnetic wigglers to manipulate near-light speed electrons, creating X-rays more than 20 million times stronger than those used for medical purposes, and then explored the multiple Physics, Biology, and Chemistry labs which used these electromagnetic rays to complete experiments.

In the morning of March 18th they traveled back to Concordia to share their data with scientists who work at CERN. A video conference was held between students from Shanghai, Honolulu, Northbrook, and physicists from Fermilab and Austria. The data shared during the conference was comprised of two parts: a histogram of the masses of the particles identified as Z bosons and Higgs Bosons, and a table of how many W+, W-, Z, or Higgs boson were identified, as well as the number of the incidences in which particles decay into electrons or muons. Shanghai was the first to share their data. Besides the expected mass histogram, Shanghai also reported several odd occurrences of particles with mass 49 GeV. After Shanghai’s report, Honolulu and Northbrook also acknowledged similar deviations from expected data in their histogram. After hearing these reports, the physicists suggested this particle might be an upsilon.

Regarding the data, all three schools also reported incidences of observing an electron, a muon, and a neutrino at the same time– which is not explained by any known W+, W-, or Z boson decay. Everyone had no idea, except Alex Li from SHSID class 11(2). Alex Li told the physicists from Austria that this might have been a rare occasion of Higgs decay, in which a Higgs decays into a W+ and a W- boson, which in turn decays into an electron, a muon, and two neutrinos, with the path of the two neutrinos combined as one. The physicists, surprised by this idea, went speechless for a moment before commenting that this was a brilliant point. They admitted that they had not thought of this idea before, and commended Shanghai’s deep observation and analysis of the data. The video conference ended on this good note. In the end, the students shook hands with the professors and showed their gratefulness for having this opportunity to attend this class before leaving Concordia with new knowledge in mind.

(Written by Daniel Zou from 11(1) Zhang & Joella from 11(1)B Pictures by Yu Haifeng)