# Institute of Physics Particle, Astroparticle, and Nuclear Physics groups Conference 2015

chaired by ,
from to (Europe/London)
at Schuster Building
 Description The joint meeting of the Institute of Physics High Energy Particle Physics, Astroparticle Physics, and Nuclear Physics groups will take place in 2015 at the University of Manchester. Please see the IOP2015 website for further event details: http://www.iop2015.manchester.ac.uk/
Go to day
• Monday, 30 March 2015
• 09:00 - 11:00 Registration  Convener: Ms. Catherine Duffy (Manchester University)
• 11:00 - 11:10 Welcome  Convener: Dr. Judith McGovern (University of Manchester), Prof. Stefan Söldner-Rembold (Manchester) Location: Roscoe Building ( 53-0-A - Theatre A )
• 11:00 Welcome 10'  Speaker: Stephen Watts (Particle Physics, Manchester)
• 11:10 - 12:30 Keynote Plenary  Convener: Prof. David Ireland (University of Glasgow) Location: Roscoe Building ( 53-0-A - Theatre A )
• 11:10 The Higgs Boson and Beyond at the LHC 40'  Speaker: Prof. Dave Charlton (University of Birmingham) Material:
• 11:50 A Nuclear Physics Perspective on Double Beta Decay 40'  Speaker: Prof. Sean Freeman (University of Manchester) Material:
• 12:30 - 14:00 Lunch
• 14:00 - 15:30 PP plenary: Particle Physics  Convener: Prof. Mark Lancaster (UCL) Location: Schuster ( 54-0-29 - Rutherford Lecture Theatre )
• 14:00 Standard Model Tests at the LHC 45'  Speaker: Dr. Joanne Cole (Brunel University) Material:
• 14:45 Physics and Detectors for the LHC Upgrades 45'  Speaker: Prof. Daniela Bortoletto (University of Oxford) Material:
• 14:00 - 15:30 NP plenary: Nuclear and Astroparticle Physics  Convener: Prof. Alexander Murphy (University of Edinburgh) Location: Schuster ( 54-0-28 - Bragg Lecture Theatre )
• 14:00 Isospin non-conserving interactions in nuclei 30'
Isospin symmetry is fundamental in nuclear physics. In the case that the proton and neutron were identical particles with the same charge, then excited states in mirror nuclei would have identical excitation energies. In reality, the pp-, nn- and np-interactions are not identical which leads to small differences in excitation energy of states of order of 10s of keV. These small differences provide important insights into the details of the nuclear force. For T=1 isospin triplets, it is possible to construct mirror energy differences (MED) - the difference between excitation energies in the T_z= -1 and +1 nuclei, and triplet energy differences (TED) which incorporate the differences between excitation energies in all three systems.
For TED, which are isotensor energy differences,  the single-particle contributions cancel. Since contributions involving Coulomb effects are readily calculable, TED are particularly sensitive to additional terms such as isospin non-conserving (INC) components. It has been shown that such a component is necessary to reproduce the experimental TED in the the f7/2 shell. The question raised is whether such components are needed in different mass regions and whether they have a similar magnitude.

The study of TED has been pushed to higher masses through the first study of the excited states of the T_z = -1 nuclei, 66Se and 74Sr. The states were identified using the technique of  recoil-beta-tagging (RBT). The nuclei were produced with cross-sections of around 100 nb in 40Ca(28Si,2n) and 40Ca(36Ar,2n) reactions at the University of Jyvaskyla. The residues were separated from scattered beam using the RITU recoil separator and implanted into a double-sided silicon strip detector (DSSD) at the focal plane. The residues were tagged on the basis of their subsequent decay through the detection of high-energy beta particles using the DSSD and either a planar germanium detector or plastic scintillator as an effective DE-E telescope. To discriminate these exotic proton-rich nuclei, a veto detector comprising a box of CsI scintillators around the target position was used to improve separation of the 2n evaporation channel. The TED obtained for A=66 and A=74 have been compared with shell model calculations using the JUN45 interaction. In order to reproduce the observed TED, it is necessary in both cases to incorporate an INC component as in the f7/2 shell. This points to the universal nature of the INC contribution and to it having a similar magnitude irrespective of the orbitals involved.
 Speaker: Prof. David Jenkins (University of York)
• 14:30 Frontiers in Explosive Nuclear Astrophysics 30'  Speaker: Dr. Gavin Lotay (University of Surrey)
• 15:00 Observing gravitational waves with Advanced detectors 30'
The Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo gravitational wave detectors will soon become operational, with the first Observing Run scheduled to start in 2015. At design sensitivity, these Advanced detectors will increase our sensitive distance by a factor of 10 (to about 200 Mpc) compared to the previous generation, leading to three orders of magnitude increase in the sensitive volume to compact binary coalescences.

This talk will provide an overview of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo before presenting the prospects for gravitational wave astronomy in the Advanced detector era.
 Speaker: Dr. Ik Siong Heng (University of Glasgow) Material:
• 15:30 - 16:00 Coffee break
• 16:00 - 17:45 PPAP Parallel: CP Violation (Quarks)  Convener: Prof. Neville Harnew (University of Oxford), Mr. Christoph Hombach (LHCb) Location: Schuster ( 54-0-64 - Moseley Lecture Theatre )
• 16:00 Measurements of the CP angle gamma using B->DK decays and an amplitude model of D->Kshh decays at LHCb 15'
The results of the 1fb-1 analysis will be presented, before the current status of the 3fb-1 analysis is outlined.
 Speaker: Mr. Jackson Smith (Cambridge University) Material:
• 16:15 Measurement of the CKM angle gamma with the model-independent GGSZ method in B->DK decays 15'
Direct measurements of the CKM Unitarity Triangle angle gamma from tree-level decays are essential to understanding CP violation in the Standard Model. Tree-level decays are free of pollution from New Physics processes, and hence should be be compared with the more precise indirect measurements which are dominated by loop contributions.

An analysis of Bu->DK, D->KsPiPi, KsKK decays using 3 fb-1 of LHCb data is presented, where a model-independent method is employed to account for the D strong phase variation over the Dalitz plot. The most precise measurement of the CP parameters to date from a single experiment has been obtained, yielding a value of gamma = 62^{+15}_{-14} degrees.
 Speaker: Ms. Faye Cheung (University of Oxford) Material:
• 16:30 Mixing and CP violation in the Bs system with ATLAS 15'
Mixing and CP violation has been studied by ATLAS in the
decay of Bs meson to J/psi Phi, observed in the final state
mu+mu-K+K-. The different amplitudes contributing to the process are
studied through the time dependence of the angular distribution. We
present the ATLAS latest results of the measurements of the average
and of the CP violating phase phi_s and compare with recent results
from LHCb and CMS.
 Speaker: Mr. Andy Wharton (Lancaster University) Material:
• 16:45 Measurement of the CP violating phase phi_s at LHCb. 15'
The precise measurement of CP violating phases is a key goal of the LHCb collaboration. The value of φs is predicted to be small in the Standard Model and has a small theoretical uncertainty. A precise measurement using the relatively large number of events available, particularly for B0s → J/ψK+K−, could reveal any deviation from Standard model predictions. This talk presents the latest results for measurement of φs in the B0s → J/ψK+K− and B0s → J/ψπ+π− channels and summarises the status of this measurement from other experiments. Ongoing work to measure φs using the B0s → ψ(2S)K+K− channel is also presented.
 Speaker: Ms. Dianne Ferguson (LHCb) Material:
• 17:00 Search for CP violation in D0->pi-pi+pi0 decays in LHCb 15'
This contribution will perform a model independent search for CP violation in D0->pi-pi+pi0 decays. This is the first LHCb CP violation measurement to use pi0 decays. The measurement also makes the first application to Dalitz plots of a statistical method known as the energy test. The method has been implemented using GPUs to obtain a suitable computing time. The selected data sample is eight times larger than that previously selected by the B factories. The results of the analysis are compatible with the no CP violation hypothesis, and the sensitivity of the analysis to a range of CP violation scenarios is discussed.
 Speaker: Mr. Shanzhen Chen (University of Manchester) Material:
• 17:15 Measurement of mixing parameters and search for indirect CP violation in D0->KS0pi+pi- at LHCb 15'
The hadronic decay D0->KS0pi+pi- provides direct access to the measurement of the mixing parameters of the neutral charm meson system and allows to test for CP violation. A measurement of the mixing parameters x and y as well as of the parameters |q/p| and arg(q,p), which govern indirect CP violation, will be performed based on a time-dependent amplitude-model analysis of the full LHCb dataset of 2011 and 2012, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3 fb-1. The decay mode D0->KS0pi+pi- is accessible via D* decays produced directly in the pp collisions as well as via semileptonic B decays. Through a combined fit of both data sets, the measurement will be sensitive at all D0 decay times. The status of the analysis will be presented.
 Speaker: Ms. Stefanie Reichert (University of Manchester) Material:
• 17:30 Time-integrated studies of D0 -> KSKpi decays at LHCb 15'
We fit amplitude models to the decays D0->KSK+pi- and D0->KSK-pi+ using prompt, D*(2010)+ tagged D0 decays recorded at the LHCb experiment during Run I of the LHC.
 Speaker: Olli Lupton (University of Oxford) Material:
• 16:00 - 18:00 NP Parallel : Progress in nuclear techniques  Convener: Dr. Gavin Smith (The University of Manchester), Mr. James Ryan (University of Manchester) Location: Chemistry Building ( 61-0-53 - G53 )
• 16:00 Measuring Lifetimes in the T=1 A=46 Triplet of Nuclei Using a Novel Plunger Method 15'
The question of the degree of purity of the isospin quantum number is one of considerable importance and much current interest. The existence of the Coulomb interaction between protons dilates the proton wave function relative to that of a neutron in the same orbit and hence mixes isospin. Such mixing is expected to grow rapidly with increasing Z, particularly along the N=Z line. Another source of isospin mixing could arise from any significant charge asymmetry or charge dependence of the nucleon-nucleon interaction itself. Indeed, it has recently been suggested [1] that such isospin non-conserving interactions could be responsible for the anomalous behaviour of Coulomb energy differences in the f7/2 shell, i.e. the well-known “J=2” anomaly [2]. However, evidence for such charge dependence is difficult to establish. A quantitative determination of the extent of isospin mixing therefore requires a study of electromagnetic transition matrix elements which are directly sensitive to isospin admixtures.

In a recent experiment performed at GSI, as part of the most recent PRESPEC-AGATA campaign, a combination of Coulex and plunger lifetime experiments were performed across the A=46 isobaric triplet, 46Cr, 46V and 46Ti in order to investigate isospin mixing between the T=0 and T=1, Jπ=2+ states in 46V. The aim of this experiment was to determine the relative B(E2) strengths for the Jπ:2+->0+ analogue transitions across this triplet, to a precision better than 5%, in order to test the linearity of the √B(E2) against the third component of isospin, Tz, thus providing a stringent test of isospin mixing. In addition, this experiment also represents the first test of the new Triple Coulex Plunger (TPC), which is comprised of 3 gold foils, each separated by 1mm, whereby each foil acts as both a Coulex target as well as a degrader. In this talk, preliminary analysis and results from this experiment will be presented.

[1] - A.P. Zuker et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 89 (2002)142502
[2] - S.J. Williams et al., Phys. Rev. C 68 (2003)011301
 Speaker: Mr. Scott Milne (University of York)
• 16:15 A double-sided silicon micro-strip tracking detector for reaction studies with relativistic radioactive ion beams 15'
Reaction experiments using high energy secondary beams incident on fixed targets are a useful means by which properties of nuclei far from stability can be studied. Under the NUSTAR (Nuclear Structure, Astrophysics and Reactions) collaboration, a programme to study relativistic reactions with radioactive beams (R3B) is being pursued at FAIR (Germany). The R3B experimental setup possesses a wide array of particle detectors to perform kinematically complete measurements.

At the centre of the detector system resides a double sided silicon strip detector (DSSSD). The strip detector, constructed at the University of Liverpool, consists of three independent layers of 100μm and 300μm thickness, that surround the target region to provide high position resolution tracking and vertex determination capabilities as well as energy and multiplicity measurement. In total, the silicon tracker supports over 116k channels, the signals from  which are readout, processed and digitised via the R3B ASIC. The R3B ASIC is currently in it's second prototype stage. Each ASIC supports 128 channels consisting of a charge sensitive preamplifier, shaper, peak hold, gain amplifiers, comparators and control logic.

An overview of the silicon tracker will be presented along with recent results of the R3B ASIC testing at Daresbury Laboratory.
 Speaker: Mr. William Powell (University of Liverpool) Material:
• 16:30 Data acquisition and timing performance of the fast timing array for NUSTAR 15'
A fast timing array, consisting of up to 36 LaBr$_3$:Ce scintillator detectors,is beeing developed for the NUSTAR
collaboration. The detectors have already been used in facilities around the world to perform fast timing measurements.
This contribution will go into the details of the partially digital vme based data acquisition system of the array as it
is being tested at the moment. Up until now the system uses a combination of V1751 digitizers, analog constant fraction
discriminators (CFDs) of type V812 and a V1290A time to digital converter (TDC). The V1751 digitizer boards use the CAEN
DPP-PSD firmware. First results on the timing performance will be presented and the integration into other systems, like
AGATA at GANIL, will be discussed. An outlook on a fully digital system with software based amplitude time walk
correction will be given.
 Speaker: Dr. Matthias Rudigier (University of Surrey) Material:
• 16:45 Construction of the silicon tracker detector of the R3B experiment. 15'
This contribution will outline the recent progress in constructing the R3B silicon tracker. It will report on detector assembly, electrical and in beam tests of the detector system.
R3B (Reaction studies with Relativistic Radioactive Beams) is a fixed-target experiment. It will be installed at the end of this decade at FAIR (Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research) in Germany.
The R3B experiment has been designed to perform kinematically complete measurements of reactions with high-energy radioactive beams. It will perform these measurements with an unprecedented high efficiency, acceptance, and resolution. This will enable a broad physics programme with rare-isotope beams to study exotic nuclei far off stability.
The silicon tracker detector is surrounding the target volume of the experiment. It detects light charged particles (like protons) from the target region. It provides precise tracking and vertexing, as well as energy and multiplicity measurements.
The detectors populating the tracker are made of double-sided micro-strip silicon sensors which are wire bonded to a custom made ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit).
There are 30 detectors making the tracker. They are spread over three layers: one inner layer with 6 detectors; and 2 identical outer layers with 12
detectors each. The tracker has a total sensitive area of ~5600 cm2.
The double-sided sensors have n-type bulk with n and p strips respectively implanted on the top and bottom surfaces. The strips have 50 um pitch with 38um strip-width and 12um gap between strips. The angle between p and n strips is 16deg. A P-spray implant is insulating the n strips from possible shorts created by ionizing radiation on the silicon-oxide layer coating the sensor. The thickness of the bulk is 300 um for the sensors populating the outer layer, and 100 um for the sensors populating the inner layer.
The ASIC to read out the sensors has been designed by the Microelectronics group at RAL (Rutherford Appleton Laboratory). The ASIC is designed in 0.35 um CMOS process and it has 128 channels. A total of 912 ASICs will be required to read out the 116,736 strips of the 30 detectors.
The same type of ASIC is used to condition and process signals collected on the p and n strips. The read out channel provides three information: spatial coordinate, energy deposit and time of the hit.
 Speaker: Dr. Marcello Borri (STFC Daresbury) Material:
• 17:00 A new Froward Tagger for CLAS12 at JLAB 15'
At Edinburgh, we are building a new fast timing hodoscope for the Forward Tagger facility which will be installed inside the CLAS12 spectrometer in Hall B at The Thomas Jefferson National Laboratory (JLAB), USA. The Forward Tagger consists of three components: a tracker, hodoscope and electromagnetic calorimeter, which will enable the detection of charged particles and photons below polar angles of 5 degrees. The detector has to operate close to the intense JLAB electron beam line, in a region of high particle flux and radiation dose.

The primary physics motivation for the development of the Forward Tagger is to enable the detection of electrons which have scattered at very low forward angles following their interaction in the experimental target, which creates a quasi-real photon beam to be used in a wide ranging physics program in CLAS12.

In this talk, I will outline the design of the Forward Tagger, give the current construction status and discuss the future plans.
 Speaker: Mrs. Ivana Stankovic (Nuclear Physics) Material:
• 17:15 A Novel Double-Bragg Detector with Digital Signal Processing for the Event-by-event Study of Fission in Actinide Nuclei 15'
A windowless double-Bragg chamber incorporating novel anode segmentation and full signal digitisation has been developed for the purpose of studying the energy, mass, charge and angular distributions of nuclei generated by fission.  This device measures energy for each fission fragment by collection of the charge produced during ionisation of a fill gas.  Subsequent digitisation of the signals from each of two anodes yields information on stopping power, as well as electron collection time which can be further used for polar angle determination.  Frisch-grid and cathode signals are also digitised and are used to produce information on the polar and azimuthal angle of the fragments respectively. As the detector is windowless the energy losses experienced by
the fission fragments prior to detection are minimal and continuous gas follow provides long term protection from radiation damage.  The present work focusses on the study of spontaneous fission of 252Cf for which full results are presented.
 Speaker: Mr. Robert Frost (Manchester) Material:
• 17:30 Neutron Activation Cross-sections for Fusion 15'
The validation of nuclear data is still a huge project that is facing many challenges. With ITER under construction, it becomes even more important to validate neutron activation cross sections, decay data, and other data required for modelling a neutron reactor. Neutron activation cross-sections are used by inventory codes such as FISPACT to model and predict both how long a material can be used inside a reactor before it needs replacing, and how radioactive it becomes. This aids with the design of the reactor and distinguishes between low, intermediate and high level waste. The experimental data available is often inconsistent, and only a tiny fraction of neutron activation cross-sections have been validated. It is planned that the automated data processing system at Culham will be updated to include necessary data corrections, and the propagation of errors throughout the data. The current areas of concern are the calculation of the neutron flux of the ASP neutron generator and the data corrections.
 Speaker: Ms. Adelle Hay (The University of York/cCFE) Material:
• 17:45 Multi-reflection ion trap spectroscopy at IGISOL IV 15'
The final phase of the new laser station development at IGISOL IV, JYFL has been completed with the installation and commissioning of a multi-reflection ion trap for laser spectroscopy. The purely electrostatic traps are based on the ConeTrap pioneered by Schmidt et al. [1,2].
Ions are guided into the trap by way of two quadrupole bends from the RFQ cool-buncher. This section sits on a potential platform, which allows the cooled ions moving with 800 eV, to be steered into the ConeTrap. Then subsequently, on release, the ions are directed out towards the laser spectroscopy line. The ConeTrap currently in place is symmetric in design and consists of two copper cone-shaped electrodes fixed to grounded central plate. These provide the harmonic potentials for trapping the ions. The Trap has been tested offline and online, in both cases it was found that ions of different masses could be successfully contained for up to 10 ms.
Further work has been undertaken to create different styles of ConeTrap that provide a laser interaction region. This interaction region will allow for optical pumping to take place within the trap itself, as well as at other stages of the beamline, such as in the cooler-buncher and at the high-energy spectroscopy line.  This range of pumping options allows for different resolutions and sensitivities. The outcome of the ConeTrap designs is to allow for laser spectroscopy in the Z~28 region, investigation in to this will continue at the end of February. The current status and recent results will be discussed and reviewed.

[1] HT Schmidt et al., Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B173 (2001) 523-527.
[2] P. Reinhed et al., Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research A621 (2010) 83–90.

This work was supported in part by the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)
 Speaker: Mr. Sam Kelly (The University of Manchester) Material:
• 16:00 - 18:00 NP Parallel : Proton-rich nuclear structure  Convener: Prof. David Jenkins (University of York), Mr. Stuart Szwec (University of Manchester) Location: Chemistry Building ( 61-0-54 - G54 )
• 16:00 Collinear laser spectroscopy at IGISOL 4 15'
For the past three decades, the Ion Guide Isotope Separator On-Line (IGISOL) laboratory at the University of Jyvaskyla, Finland, has been instrumental in the advances in laser spectroscopic nuclear structure measurements, owing not least to the use of a thin-foil target in place of the thick targets used at most other isotope production facilities – allowing not only the shortest-lived elements to be studied, but also the most refractory. IGISOL’s latest incarnation, IGISOL 4, includes a new, dedicated cyclotron – allowing more opportunities for such experiments which provide model-independent measurements of fundamental properties such as nuclear shapes, sizes, spins and magnetic moments. Such measurements can therefore be used to test the validity of existing nuclear models as well as aid with mapping out new regions of the nuclear chart.

Laser spectroscopy has performed on doubly-charged radioactive yttrium isotopes (96,97,98Y) for the first time at IGISOL 4; it is hoped that this will enable a more reliable calibration of the existing charge radii of the yttrium isotope chain by studying alkali-like transitions. These measurements, plus those on the ground and isomeric states of the self-conjugate nucleus 42Sc, will be presented here.
 Speaker: Mr. Liam Vormawah (University of Liverpool) Material:
• 16:15 Investigation of low-lying collective states in Mo-96 15'
Information about proton-neutron interaction can be obtained from nuclear states particularly sensitive to the proton-neutron degree of freedom, of which low-lying isovector states are representatives. Our goal is to test the existence of a low-lying isovector octupole excitation in near-spherical nuclei, for which recently candidates were proposed [1]. This assignment is based on strong M1-transitions to the first excited 3- state and enhanced cross sections in (p,p') and (e,e')  experiments [2]. The approaches are twofold: Exploiting existing data and theory the necessary condition for the formation of an isovector state, the situation of proton as well as neutron 1p1h states between the isoscalar and isovector state are explored. The theoretical calculation [3] are conducted using a self-consistent mean-field approach with particle-vibration coupling corrections[4]. Furthermore, at ILL Grenoble 95Mo(n,gamma gamma) and 143Nd(n, gamma gamma) [5] experiments were performed to verify the experimental data the assignment is based upon.

[1] M. Scheck et al., Phys. Rev. C81, 064305 (2010)
[2] M. Scheck, J.Phys.Conf. Ser. 366, 012040 (2010)
[3] D. Tarpanov, private communication.
[4] D.Tarpanov et al., Phys. Rev. Let. 113, 252501 (2014)
[5] M. Thuerauf, PhD thesis, TU Darmstadt, in preparation.
 Speaker: Eleonora Teresia Gregor (University of the West of Scotland) Material:
• 16:30 A shape study of 72Kr using the REX-ISOLDE/Miniball facility 15'
The Kr isotopic chain constitutes an example of an isotopic chain exhibiting shape-coexistence phenomena [1, 2].  It provides a good testing ground for theoretical models [3,4,5,6] and includes the challenging case of 72Kr.  Although there is no direct experimental evidence, the existing experimental and the theoretical information indicate an oblate deformation for the first excited 2+state in this nucleus [1, 4].   Such information from a shape study is vital in steering the theoretical efforts in the mass 70 region with nuclei having high valance to core nucleon ratio.  Therefore, we carried out a low-energy inelastic Coulomb excitation measurement using a 2.85 MeV/u radioactive 72Kr beam on a 2 mg/cm2 104Pd target foil at the REX-ISOLDE/Miniball facility to determine the shape of 72Kr (2+) utilizing the re-orientation effect [7].  In this oral presentation, we will present our result together with model calculations that are consistent with prolate nature for this state, contrasting the previous expectations [1].

[1] E. Bouchez et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 082502 (2003).
[2] H. Iwasaki et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 142502 (2014).
[3] K. Heyde and J. L. Wood, Rev. Mod. Phys. 83, 1467 (2011).
[4] A. Gade et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 022502 (2005).
[5] J.M. Yao et al., to appear in Phys. Rev. C (2014).
[6] A.P. Zuker et al., arXiv:1404.0224 v1 (nucl-th) (2014).
[7] A. M. Hurst et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 072501 (2007).
 Speaker: Dr. S Nara Singh Bondili (University of York) Material:
• 16:45 Lifetime measurements of short lived nuclear states in proton rich heavy nuclei. 15'
Data acquired at the University of Jyväskylä using a combination of JurogamII germanium array and RITU focal plane will be analysed in order to extract lifetimes. The techniques used to calculate lifetimes include using; Doppler-shift attenuation method (DSAM) to measure the decay of nuclei as they slow down within a thick target backing; and a TAC signal between a pair of LaBr 3 detectors, taking advantage of the relatively good time resolution of these detectors to look at  oincident transitions of known energetic structures. These techniques can  sually resolve lifetimes to a sub- nanoseconds time scale.

The current state of analysis is preliminary and involves two data sets, which is why no experimental specifics are mentioned here.
This presentation will likely focus on the data set in which most progress has been achieved before the date of the event.
 Speaker: Mr. Michael Mallaburn (University of Manchester) Material:
• 17:00 Intermediate spin structures in the rare-earth nucleus 159Yb 15'
The 120Sn(44Ca,5nγ) reaction has been investigated at 210 MeV, resulting in the expansion of the known level scheme for the rare-earth nucleus 159Yb. Using the Gammasphere spectrometer, high-fold, high-statistics γ ray coincidence data were taken during two separate experiments. Six new band structures have been established at low and intermediate spins, with further high-spin additions observed in previously known bands in addition to a host of linking transitions. Quasiparticle configurations have been assigned based on comparison with cranked shell-model calculations. Many of the highest-spin structures demonstrate changes from normally deformed prolate to weakly deformed oblate shapes. Transitions have been observed up to spins of 91/2h, where band terminating effects can be seen.
 Speaker: Mr. Jonathan Wright (University of Liverpool)
• 17:15 Study of N~Z nuclei in the A=70-80 region 15'
Nuclear structure in the N~Z, A=70-80 region is of particular interest due to the expected contribution of rapid shape changes, shape coexistence and np-pairing effects. However, the presence of such effects makes this is a challenging region from a theoretical
perspective. The structure of N~Z nuclei can also have impact in nuclear astrophysics on the rapid-proton (rp) capture process reaction rate calculations. The present experiment provided the opportunity to study neutron-deficient nuclei both close to and beyond the N=Z line in this mass region.

To access these nuclei a decay spectroscopy experiment was performed at the Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory (RIBF) at RIKEN as part of the EURICA campaign. The nuclei of interest were produced by the fragmentation of a 345 MeV/nucleon 124Xe primary beam, of average intensity 30-35 pnA, colliding with a 555 mg/cm2 9Be target. The
secondary beam purification and identification was provided by the BigRIPS separator. The fragments of interest were unambiguously identified and implanted into a highly segmented active stopper, WAS3ABi, which also recorded the subsequent beta-decays. The gamma rays were recorded by the germanium array EURICA. Implantations were correlated with gamma decays (for isomer spectroscopy) or their subsequent beta-decays on the basis of position and time, enabling measurement of half-lives and beta-gamma studies.

The half-lives of 73,74Sr and 76Y were measured for the first time and the upper limits for the proton decay half-lives of 72,73Rb were calculated. The results of these half-lives and upper limits will be presented. Preliminary evidence for an unusual gamma decaying isomer
in 70Se will also be presented.
 Speaker: Ms. Laura Sinclair (University of York)
• 17:30 Search for the alpha decay of 160Os 15'
A search has been performed for the α decay of 160Os. The experiment, in which a beam of 58Ni ions was incident on a 106Cd target at an average intensity of 6.8 pnA, was performed at the University of Jyväskylä Accelerator Laboratory. 160Os is expected to be the lightest α-decaying osmium isotope and might be expected to have an 8+ isomer based on the systematics of the N=84 isotones. The results of this analysis will be presented and discussed.
 Speaker: Mr. Alex Gredley (University of Liverpool)
• 17:45 High-K states in No-254: Preliminary results from the SAGE spectrometer 15'
The deformed region around No-254 is one of the most important areas of the nuclear chart for the study of K-isomers. The observation and structural assignment of these isomers provides information on the location of the Nilsson states involved, including some of those bending down from either side of the next spherical shell gap, the 'island of stability'. This can give useful experimental constraints on models predicting the location of this island[1].

Previous work has identified two K-isomers in No-254. The longer-lived isomer is thought to be a two quasi-particle state with spin/parity 8-, but the structure of the faster isomer remains unclear. Its decay path is also disputed, and two different level schemes have been proposed[2][3].

Preliminary results will be presented from ongoing analysis of an experiment using the SAGE combined gamma-ray/conversion electron spectrometer[4] in conjunction with the RITU gas-filled separator and the GREAT focal plane spectrometer at the University of Jyväskylä Accelerator Laboratory (JYFL). In-beam spectroscopy suggests that previous interpretations of the decay of the faster isomer are incorrect. An alternative decay path is tentatively proposed but further beam time is needed, and approved at JYFL, to confirm this level scheme.

[1] Herzberg & Greenlees, Prog. Part. Nucl. Phys., 61, pp.674-720 (2008)
[2] Heßberger et al., Eur. Phys. J. A, 43, pp.55-66 (2010)
[3] Clark et al., Phys. Lett. B, 690, pp.19-24 (2010)
[4] Pakarinen et al., Eur. Phys. J. A, 50 p.53 (2014)
 Speaker: Andrew Ward (University of Liverpool) Material:
• 16:00 - 18:00 PPAP Parallel: Neutrino Oscillations I  Convener: Dr. Jeff Hartnell (University of Sussex), Mr. Rui Chen (the University of Manchester) Location: Schuster ( 54-0-28 - Bragg Lecture Theatre )
• 16:00 Hyper-Kamiokande: Introduction & Physics Potential 15'
Hyper-Kamiokande (HK) is a proposed water Cherenkov detector, with a total mass of 1 megatonne, which continues the highly successful series of Japanese neutrino and nucleon decay experiments. Using accelerator neutrinos produced ~300 km away at the J-PARC facility, HK will have world-leading sensitivity to leptonic CP violation. Assuming realistic, conservative uncertainties, we find that HK will provide a sensitivity of 3 sigma significance for almost all the phase-space, and 5 sigma for about 60% of the phase-space. HK will also increase sensitivity to proton decay, a 'smoking gun' for grand unification and new physics, by an order of magnitude. Additionally, HK will advance astrophysical research in a wide range of topics, including solar neutrinos, indirect searches for dark matter, and supernova neutrinos. In particular, HK can detect neutrinos from a core-collapse supernova neutrino burst at distances as far as the Andromeda Galaxy, and the detector will be sensitive to relic supernova neutrinos from the early universe. During this talk, I describe the detector design and review its broad physics and astrophysics capabilities.
 Speaker: Dr. Matthew Malek (Imperial College London) Material:
• 16:15 Lepton Mixing Predictions from (Generalised) CP and Discrete Flavour Symmetry 15'
An important class of flavour groups that are subgroups of U(3) and that predict experimentally viable lepton mixing parameters including Majorana phases, is the ∆(6n^2) series. The most well-known member is ∆(24) = S4. I present results of several extensive studies of lepton mixing predictions obtained in models with a ∆(6n^2) flavour group that preserve either the full Klein symmetry or a Z2 subgroup for neutrinos and can include a generalised CP symmetry. Predictions include mixing angles and Dirac CP phase generally; and if invariance under a generalised CP symmetry is included, also Majorana phases. For this, the interplay of flavour group and generalised CP symmetry has to be studied carefully.
 Speaker: Mr. Thomas Neder (University of Southampton) Material:
• 16:30 The VALOR Neutrino Oscillation Analysis for T2K 15'
The VALOR oscillation analysis is a frequentist fitting package written for the T2K experiment, capable of performing muon neutrino disappearance, electron neutrino appearance and joint measurements. Work has been undertaken to meet the requirements of T2K's antineutrino beam mode measurements, and to support future long-baseline experiments.
 Speaker: Mr. Steve Dennis (University of Warwick) Material:
• 16:45 Short-Baseline Neutrino Oscillation Program at Fermilab 15'
In the last fifteen years, experimental observations of neutrino oscillations have established a picture consistent with the mixing of three neutrino flavors (νe, νμ, ντ) with three mass eigenstates (ν1, ν2, ν3) and with relatively small mass differences. However, recently, several Short-Baseline Neutrino (SBN) experiments (with baselines < 1 km) have reported different anomalies with significances in the range 2.8 – 3.8σ. If experimentally confirmed, these results could be suggesting important new physics with the presence of additional neutrino states (”sterile”) with larger mass-squared differences, typically ∆m2new ≥ 0.1 eV2, participating in the mixing. Given the importance of a sterile neutrino discovery, it is a must to explore further these anomalies by repeating the existing measurements in an more effective way.
The FNAL SBN oscillation physics program will offer a rich and exciting physics opportunity, including the most sensitive search to date for sterile neutrinos at the eV mass-scale through both appearance and disappearance oscillation channels. It proposes three LAr-TPC detectors located along the Booster Neutrino Beam (BNB) at Fermilab. Their locations have been chosen to optimize sensitivity to neutrino oscillations and minimize the importance of flux systematic uncertainties. Using detectors at different distances from the neutrino beam source, and taking advantage of the liquid argon technology, with its ability to distinguish between electrons and photons, the SBN program will cover at high confidence level the full parameter space suggested by the anomalies. Finally, the SBN program is an excellent opportunity to further develop this important technology for the future long-baseline neutrino program.
 Speaker: Dr. Diego Garcia Gamez (The University of Manchester) Material:
• 17:00 Anti-neutrino oscillation at the T2K experiment 15'
T2K is an off-axis long-baseline neutrino experiment, using the J-PARC neutrino beam. The experiment has collected 6.57E20 POT in the period between 2010 and spring 2013, using a muon-neutrino beam, which has been used to achieve the experimental aims of measuring θ13 ≠ 0 at over 7 sigma, and providing a world-leading measurement of θ23. Initial measurements of δcp have also been made in combination with reactor disappearance experiments. In 2014 the polarity of the focussing horns was reversed, producing a beam primarily composed of muon anti-neutrinos. This beam will be used to measure θ23-bar and Δm2 32-bar (using νμ-bar disappearance) and θ13-bar (using νe-bar appearance), which will be used to get some information about CP violation in the lepton sector. This talk will describe a Bayesian oscillation analysis based on a Markov Chain Monte Carlo method, which will be used to study νμ-bar disappearance at the current T2K statistics of 1.7E20 POT.
 Speaker: Ms. Kirsty Duffy (University of Oxford) Material:
• 17:15 Study of the intrinsic electron neutrino component in the T2K neutrino beam with the near detector, ND280 15'
T2K is an off-axis long baseline neutrino oscillation experiment
optimised to measure theta13 and deltaCP using a muon neutrino beam.
The most sensitive mode is to look for electron neutrino appearance,
and the dominant background for such measurements is the intrinsic
electron neutrino component in the beam itself.  A selection is made
using data from the off-axis near detector (ND280) to detect charged
current (CC) electron neutrino interactions; these are split into
events with no pions in the final state (nue CC0pi) and the remaining
CC interactions (nue CCother).  This strategy will both improve the
constraint of the intrinsic background by this analysis and allow a
measurement of the CC0pi cross section.
 Speaker: Ms. Sophie King (QMUL / University of Southampton) Material:
• 17:30 NC gamma measurement with the ND280 at T2K 15'
I present a methodology for search of single photon initiated by neutrino interaction with the ND280 detector at the T2K experiment. Neutrino production of single photon is a subdominant process, which could lead to a bias in the nu_e appearance oscillation analysis for accelerator neutrino experiment. The experimental motivation of this process essentially comes from the MiniBooNE excess. The single photon is created by a nuclear resonance (typically Delta-1232) after weak interaction of the neutrino. The cross section is expected to be of the order of 10^{-42} cm^2. The main background is composed of pi^0 asymmetrically decaying into two photons where only one photon is detected and events creating photon from outside of the fiducial volume.
 Speaker: Mr. Pierre Lasorak (Queen Mary University of London) Material:
• 17:45 Reconstruction and simulation for the CHIPS experiment 15'
CHIPS is an R&D experiment intending to deploy a 10kton water Cherenkov detector at the bottom of a flooded mining pit, 7mrad off-axis from the NuMI neutrino beam.  A goal of CHIPS is to be retrievable from the lake, allowing various photodetectors and multi-photodetector modules to be inserted and tested in real data-taking conditions.  This talk describes the development of a Geant4 simulation capable of constructing generic water Cherenkov detectors with PMTs placed in arbitrary repeating patterns, and of a likelihood-based track fitting framework to reconstruct events with multiple particles.  I will also discuss the construction of a small prototype detector, CHIPS-M, which was deployed during the summer of 2014 to test the structure and materials, and the water filtration and pumping system, and will be recovered this summer.
 Speaker: Mr. Andrew Perch (UCL) Material:
• 16:00 - 18:00 PPAP Parallel: Higgs Physics I  Convener: Paul Newman (University of Birmingham), Julia Mariana Iturbe Ponce (University of Manchester) Location: Schuster ( 54-0-29 - Rutherford Lecture Theatre )
• 16:00 Search for Higgs boson decays to a photon and a Z boson in pp collisions at √s=7 and 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector 15'
Updates on the search for the Standard Model Higgs Boson in the decay channel $H\to Z\gamma$, $Z\to\ell^+\ell^-$, where $\ell=e\text{ or }\mu$ are presented.  The analysis is based on 4.5fb$^{-1}$ and 20.3fb$^{-1}$ of proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} =$ 7 TeV and 8 TeV, respectively, recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2011 and 2012.  New event categorisations are applied with an improved limit setting method to obtain increased sensitivity.  The latest expected limits are presented.
 Speaker: Mr. Nathan Readioff (University of Liverpool) Material:
• 16:15 Higgs search and properties in the ditau decay channel 15'
A search for the Standard Model Higgs boson in the ditau channel will be presented, showing the methodology and results using Run 1 data at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV with an emphasis on the semileptonic tau decays. This will be followed by a description of the current efforts in the ditau channel to determine the CP properties of the Higgs when coupling to vector bosons by exploiting kinematics of the tagging jets in vector boson fusion production.
 Speaker: Mr. Martin Spangenberg (University of Warwick) Material:
• 16:30 Searches for invisible decays of the Higgs boson with the CMS detector 15'
Searches for invisible decays of the Higgs boson have been carried out in events where the Higgs boson is produced through vector boson fusion. The analyses are based on proton-proton collision data collected with the CMS detector at the LHC collider at a centre-of-mass energies of 8 TeV, with an integrated luminosity of 20/fb. No evidence of a signal has been found. These searches have been combined with those in the ZH associated production channel and the best upper limits on the invisible branching ratio to date have been obtained.
 Speaker: Mr. Patrick Dunne (Imperial College London) Material:
• 16:45 Phenomenological aspects of the UMSSM 15'
We explore the Higgs and supersymmetric sector of the U(1) extended supersymmetric standard model that is compatible with the Higgs at 125 GeV, dark matter constraints and B-physics constraints. We take into account both a neutralino and a sneutrino LSP.
LHC constraints on sparticles are applied using the available simplified models interpretations with the tool SModelS.
 Speaker: Dr. Jonathan Da Silva (University of Manchester) Material:
• 17:00 Higgs measurements in the H -> ZZ -> 4l channel in the ATLAS detector using the KLFitter tool. 15'
Higgs measurements in ZZ decay channels can be improved by constraining the mass of Z boson decay daughters using the well-measured Z boson mass and resolution. A Z-mass constraint has been used for Run 1 measurements in the H -> ZZ -> 4l channel by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC with some limitations that are being addressed with a new implementation for the upcoming Run 2 measurements. A kinematic likelihood fitting tool (KLFitter) has been in use for Run 1 for top quark mass measurements on ATLAS. While this is a sophisticated likelihood fitting tool, it has not yet been used for Higgs boson measurements. The use of KLFitter is expected to improve the resolution of the measurement of the Higgs boson discovered near 125 GeV through a sophisticated weighting of each possible assignment of reconstructed leptons to Z bosons from Higgs decay. The KLFitter is also expected to give improved sensitivity for searches for additional
Higgs bosons above 125 GeV in not only the 4-lepton channel, but other ZZ channels as well.
 Speaker: Mrs. Francisca Garay (University of Edinburgh) Material:
• 17:15 Determination of the off-shell Higgs boson signal strength and Higgs total width Interpretation in the high-mass ZZ and WW final states with the ATLAS detector 15'
The theoretical total width of the Standard Model (SM) Higgs boson is extremely small (4.2 MeV), making it an impossible quest to measure it
directly with LHC experiments. Recent publications showed a novel way to set an indirect limit on the total width by using both off-shell
and on-shell production measurements of the Higgs boson.
This study presents a determination of the off-shell Higgs boson couplings and a futher interpretation of the Higgs total width
in the $ZZ\rightarrow4l$, $ZZ\rightarrow2l2\nu$ and $WW\rightarrow l\nu l\nu$ channels.
The result is based on pp collision data collected by
the ATLAS experiment at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20.3 $fb^{-1}$ at a collision energy of $\sqrt{s}$ = 8 TeV.
Using the CLs method and assuming that the same high-order QCD corrections apply for both signal and background,
the observed 95\% confidence level (CL) upper limit of the off-shell signal strength (yields normalised to the SM) is 6.2 and
the Higgs total width is 22.7 MeV.
 Speaker: Sebastian Olivares Olivares (University of Edinburgh) Material:
• 17:30 Hbb and VH resonances 15'
A brief overview of the Run 1 WH(H->bb) 1 lepton analysis and a look at the Run 2 prospects for VH resonances with a similar decay signature
 Speaker: Mr. Paul Mullen (University of Glasgow) Material:
• 17:45 ATLAS combined Higgs coupling studies 15'
The latest ATLAS results on the coupling properties of the Higgs boson using the full LHC run I dataset are presented. A combination of several final states is used to determine the compatibility of the data with the Standard Model predictions for Higgs boson couplings using different benchmark scenarios. The analysis techniques employed are also discussed, using the H->ZZ*->4l final state as an example.
 Speaker: Richard Mudd (University Of Birmingham) Material:
• 16:00 - 18:00 PPAP Parallel: Low Background/Dark Matter  Convener: Prof. Jocelyn Monroe (Royal Holloway, University of London), Mr. Stephen Marsden (The University of Manchester) Location: Schuster ( 54-0-62 - Blackett Lecture Theatre )
• 16:00 Deep Science at the Boulby Underground Laboratory: Current studies and details of new underground facilities to support UK/international astro-particle physics studies and beyond. 15'
The STFC Boulby Underground Laboratory is the the UK’s deep underground science facility operating in a working potash and salt mine on the North East coast of England. At 1100m deep (reducing cosmic ray muon flux by ~10^6) Boulby is one of the few facilities in the world suited to hosting projects requiring a 'quiet environment', free of interference from natural background radiation. Boulby currently hosts a wide range of studies from astro-particle physics (the DRIFT & DM-Ice Dark Matter searches and a world-class material screening facility for rare-event studies) to studies of geology, geophysics, climate, the environment, life on Earth and beyond. The underground facilities at Boulby are now expanding and improving to best accommodate UK astro-particle physics and underground science for the coming decades. This talk will give an overview of Boulby, the science currently hosted and details of the underground support facilities old and new.
 Speaker: Mr. Christopher Toth (STFC) Material:
• 16:15 Axion searches using dark matter direct search experiments 15'
Axions were first introduced as an explanation for the absence of CP violation in the QCD sector, but experiments have since rejected this model. However, at lower masses and weaker couplings "invisible” axions, arising from a higher symmetry breaking scale, and so-called axion-like particles (pseudoscalars), that do not solve the CP problem but that are introduced in many extensions to the standard model, are still allowed.
Today, a large theoretical and experimental effort is being devoted to axion searches using several methods. Among these, direct dark matter experiments are particularly suitable because of their low backgrounds and low energy thresholds. In this talk we discuss axion production mechanisms, both in the early universe and in our own sun, and why axions may be excellent cold dark matter candidates. We present how xenon detectors, like the LUX and LUX-ZEPLIN dark matter direct search experiments, may be used to detect axions via the axio-electric effect, to probe both the presence of axions slow moving within our galaxy and axion emitted from the Sun.
 Speaker: Ms. Maria Francesca Marzioni (The University of Edinburgh) Material:
• 16:30 Glow in the Dark Matter: Observing Galactic Halos with Scattered Light 15'
I discuss a new method for studying the scattering cross section between dark matter particles and photons, first introduced in PRL114 051303. Using observations of the galaxy M101 as an example, I show that for a scattering cross section at the level of 10^(-23)*(m/GeV)  cm^2 or greater dark matter in the halo of this galaxy will scatter light out from the more luminous center of its disc to larger radii, contributing to an effective increased surface brightness at the edges of the observed area on the sky. This is potentially a powerful probe of the interactions of dark matter particles, complimentary to constraints from direct detection and collider searches.
 Speaker: Dr. Jonathan Davis (IAP) Material:
• 16:45 Connecting Dark Matter Relic Abundance to Primordial Tensor Perturbations 15'
It is plausible that the inflaton field which drives inflation in the early Universe could couple to the DM field directly/indirectly, thus providing a common origin for both luminous and non-luminous matter. We explore this novel possibility and show that, in certain hidden sector scenarios, the DM mass can be correlated with the tensor-to-scalar ratio. This unique correlation could provide us with a new window of opportunity for unraveling the properties of DM, if a nonzero tensor-to-scalar ratio is observed in future.
 Speaker: Dr. Bhupal Dev (University of Manchester) Material:
• 17:00 Overview of the UK low-background Screening Facilities 15'
Over the past 12 months new low-background screening facilities in the UK have come online with two new germanium detectors located at the Boulby Underground Science Facility and ICP-MS and radon screening facilities at UCL. These facilities will be used to screen critical components for next generation, rare-event search experiments. In this talk, I will discuss the deployment and characterisation (through simulation and analysis) of the germanium detectors. These new detectors perform to a level such that their sensitivity and, hence, their sample throughput is a marked improvement over the previous generation.  I will also give a brief update on both the ICP-MS and radon screening developments.
 Speaker: Dr. Paul Scovell (University of Oxford) Material:
• 17:15 Recent progress with the DEAP-3600 Dark Matter experiment 15'
DEAP-3600 is a single phase liquid argon (LAr) dark matter experiment. It is located 2 km underground at SNOLAB, in Sudbury, Ontario. The detector has 1 tonne fiducial mass target of LAr.  DEAP-3600 is currently in the commissioning stage and is expected to start data taking with LAr within three months. The target sensitivity to spin-independent scattering of 100 GeV WIMPs is 10−46 cm2 which improves the current limits by one order of magnitude. The DEAP-3600 background target is 0.6 background events in the WIMP region of interest in 3 tonne-years from all sources. The β/γ backgrounds are mitigated by the excellent pulse shape discrimination of LAr.  This talk will present an overview and the recent progress with this experiment.
 Speaker: Dr. Nasim Fatemighomi (Royal Holloway University of London) Material:
• 17:30 The PMT Calibration System of SNO+ 15'
Located 2 km underground, SNO+ is a liquid scintillator based experiment searching for neutrinoless double-beta decay with tellurium. Due to the experiment's sensitivity to radioactive backgrounds, an external optical calibration system has been developed to provide in-situ measurements of the detectors optical response and the calibration of the gain and timing of the PMT array. This reduces the necessity to deploy sources in the detector that risk contaminating the liquid scintillator cocktail. The PMT calibration component of this system operates by injecting fast light pulses across the detector from 91 positions located on the PMT array. The electronic hardware has been installed and optical fibres are being connected to injection points as the water level rises within the detector. Data has been collected in recent commissioning runs using this system.
 Speaker: Mr. James Waterfield (University of Sussex) Material:
• 17:45 The Optical Scattering Calibration System at SNO+ 15'
The SNO+ experiment is a kilo-tonne scale liquid-scintillator detector located in the Creighton Mine near Sudbury in Ontario, Canada.  The experiment has a broad physics program, covering many important aspects of neutrino physics including solar neutrino oscillations, supernovae neutrinos and neutrinoless double beta decay.  In order to achieve these goals, it is vital that the detector's optical responses be understood, monitored and calibrated periodically throughout the lifetime of the experiment.  One important optical property is the scattering of light within the detector medium, and a calibration system (SMELLIE) has been developed for in-situ monitoring of optical scattering.  This uses permanently installed optical fibres, thus avoiding potential contamination of the detector medium.  This talk will detail the hardware and software that comprises SMELLIE, the system's installation at SNO+, and some of the initial commissioning data that has been taken in 2014.
 Speaker: Mr. Krishanu Majumdar (University of Oxford) Material:
• 18:45 - 21:00 Reception  Location: Manchester Town Hall
• Tuesday, 31 March 2015
• 09:00 - 11:00 Keynote Plenary  Convener: Franz Muheim (University of Edinburgh) Location: Roscoe Building ( 53-0-A - Theatre A )
• 09:00 Shedding Light on Time-Reversal Violation: Electric dipole moments in the Standard Model and beyond 40'
The fundamental laws of physics are not invariant under a reversal of time. The Standard Model (SM) of particle physics accommodates the observed time-reversal violation (TV), but the apparent matter-antimatter asymmetry of the universe suggests that other mechanisms exist. Possible mechanisms include the topology of the QCD vacuum and electric dipole moments (EDMs) of quarks. I discuss, using the framework of effective field theories, how various existing and proposed experiments on the EDMs of the neutron, light nuclei and atoms might reveal physics beyond the SM.
 Speaker: Prof. Ubirajara van Kolck (Institut de Physique Nucleaire d'Orsay and University of Arizona) Material:
• 09:40 Small LHC Excesses to Keep an Eye on 40'  Speaker: Prof. Ben Allanach (University of Cambridge) Material:
• 10:20 Physics of Neutrino Interactions 40'  Speaker: Dr. Teppei Katori (Queen Mary University of London) Material:
• 11:00 - 11:30 Coffee break
• 11:30 - 12:30 PP plenary: Particle and Astroparticle Physics  Convener: Prof. Steve Lloyd (Queen Mary University of London) Location: Schuster ( 54-0-29 - Rutherford Lecture Theatre )
• 11:30 Cosmology and Inflation versus the Masses of the Higgs and the Top Quark 30'  Speaker: Dr. Fedor Bezrukov (University of Connecticut and CERN) Material:
• 12:00 Neutrino Oscillations: Have We Solved the Puzzle? 30'  Speaker: Dr. Georgia Karagiorgi (University of Manchester) Material:
• 11:30 - 12:30 NP plenary: Nuclear Physics  Convener: Prof. Jonathan Billowes (Univeristy of Manchester) Location: Schuster ( 54-0-28 - Bragg Lecture Theatre )
• 11:30 Investigating the structures of exotic N=32 and 34 nuclei at the RIBF facility 30'
Recent investigations of exotic N = 32 and 34 nuclei have highlighted the presence of sizable subshell closures at these neutron numbers that are absent in stable isotones. The onset of a new subshell closure at N = 34 was recently reported in 54Ca [1], while previous experimental studies focused on the development of subshell gaps at N = 32 in Cr [2, 3], Ti [4, 5] and Ca [6–8] isotopes. On the theoretical side, these subshells gaps were investigated, for example, in the framework of tensor-force-driven shell evolution [9]; as protons are removed from the πf7/2 orbital, the νf5/2 state becomes progressively less bound and shifts up in energy relative to the νp3/2–νp1/2 spin-orbit partners. It has also been reported that no significant N = 34 gap exists in Ti isotopes [5, 10], despite the fact that an inversion of the νf5/2 and νp1/2 orbitals has been noted [11]. The strength of the N = 34 closure in Sc isotopes, which contain only one proton in the πf7/2 orbital, provides further input on the location of the νf5/2 orbital and the evolution of the N = 34 subshell gap in exotic systems. Moreover, the low-lying structures of Ar isotopes, which are presently reported up to 48Ar, can provide information on the strength of the N = 32 closure at Z < 20. In the present work, the structures of 50Ar, 54Ca and 55Sc were investigated using in-beam γ-ray spectroscopy following nucleon knockout reactions from fast radioactive projectiles to help shed light on the evolution of the N = 32 and 34 subshell closures in nuclei far from stability.

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 Speaker: Dr. David Steppenbeck (RIKEN Nishina Center)
• 12:00 Development of Light Manipulation Techniques for the Laser Spectroscopy Experiment at TRIUMF 15'
The collinear fast beam spectroscopy beam line is a setup at TRIUMF, Canada, operated to measure nuclear properties of exotic isotopes such as spin, changes in mean-square charge radii and electromagnetic moments.  The experiment investigates the properties of radioactive isotopes produced at the ISAC (Isotope Separator and Accelerator) facility, created using protons from the 520 MeV cyclotron.  In a bid to extend measurements to more exotic cases, new laser manipulation methods have been developed and demonstrated on-line on radioactive ion beams.
The first of these involves an electro-optic modulator (EOM) for high-frequency intensity modulation of laser light (“fast chopping”).  Through fast control of the direction of light polarization, the intensity of light can be drastically changed in order to decrease the undesirable effect of optical pumping in the laser/ion overlap regions in the setup.  This method has been utilized for experimental campaigns on exotic rubidium [1] and francium [2] isotopes that have investigated regions of nuclear shape evolution.
The second consists of using an acousto-optic modulator (AOM) for high-frequency switching of narrow-linewidth laser light (“frequency flipping”).  In combination with the EOM, this technique seeks to regain experimental efficiencies lost whilst applying the fast laser chopping.  By applying an RF signal to the AOM, pulses of light at different frequencies can be delivered to the experiment to increase the amount of laser/ion overlap whilst keeping optical pumping to a minimum.  This method was recently performed during a continuation of the francium campaign that measured the properties of the less produced 204,206Fr isomeric states as well as the ground states [3].  These methods along with the nuclear physics information obtained will be presented.

[1] T. J. Procter et al. to be published
[2] A. Voss et al.  Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, (2013) 122501
[3] A. Voss et al. to be published
 Speaker: Dr. Thomas Procter (TRIUMF) Material:
• 12:15 Determining the spin and parity of the ground and isomeric states in 102Y. 15'
A recent experiment has used the JYFLTRAP system [1] at the IGISOL facility, University of Jyväskylä, to separate the ground and isomeric states of 102Y and study their gamma decay. Previous studies show 102Y to have two beta decaying states, one high spin and the other low spin, but it is not clear which is the ground and which is the excited state. The high-spin state of 102Y was produced from thermal fission of 235U and studied using the JOSEF recoil separator at the research reactor DIDO of the Kernforschungsanlage (KFA) Julich [2]. The low-spin state was produced at the TRISTAN facility at Brookhaven National Laboratory [3] from the beta decay of 102Sr. Separate measurement of the decay of the two states is complicated by the small difference in their half-lives (300 and 360ms) [2,3] and a predicted energy difference of only ~200keV. In this work the decay paths can be observed independently, following separation in the trap system, and the population pattern in the daughter nucleus measured. Since the spins and parities of states in 102Zr are known, this method can determine the spins and parities of the isomeric and ground states in 102Y [4]. A complementary study of 92-102Y using laser spectroscopy [5] at the IGISOL facility has tentatively assigned a spin value of I=2 or 3 to one of the states in 102Y. This presentation will detail the experimental set-up and present preliminary results.

[1] T Eronen, et al. Eur. Phys. J. A,  48, 46, 2012.

[2] K Shizuma et al. Phys. Rev. C, 27, 2869, 1983.

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[4] C Rodriguez Triguero et al. J. Phys G: Nucl. Part. Phys. 39, 015101, 2012.

[5] B Cheal et al. Phys. Lett. B, 645, 133, 2007.
 Speaker: Ms. C.R. Nobs (University of Brighton) Material:
• 12:30 - 14:00 Lunch
• 13:00 - 14:00 APP AGM  Convener: Prof. Alexander Murphy (University of Edinburgh) Location: Schuster ( 54-0-28 - Bragg Lecture Theatre )
• 14:00 - 15:30 PPAP Parallel: Rare Decays  Convener: Dr. Jonas Rademacker (University of Bristol), Ms. Stefanie Reichert (University of Manchester) Location: Schuster ( 54-0-29 - Rutherford Lecture Theatre )
• 14:00 Production Measurements of X(3872) with ATLAS 15'
The X(3872) is an exotic particle first discovered in 2003 by the Belle experiment as a resonance in the J/ψπ+π- invariant mass spectrum. We present measurements of the production cross section for prompt and non-promptly produced X(3872) through the J/ψπ+π- decay channel using 2012 data collected by the ATLAS experiment from proton-proton collisions at an 8 TeV centre-of-mass energy.
 Speaker: Michael Beattie (Lancaster University) Material:
• 14:15 Search for the Cabibbo suppressed decay Λ0b -> pπμμ at the LHCb detector. 15'
The study of $\Lambda_{b}$ hadrons has received relatively little attention compared with that of $\B$ mesons.  The present status of the search for the Cabibbo suppressed decay $\Lambda^{0}_{b} \rightarrow \proton \pion \mu\mu$ at the LHCb detector is outlined. This decay may  be sensitive to new physics as it occurs via a flavour changing neutral current. It also provides an opportunity to test the Minimal Flavour Violation hypothesis in the $\Lambda$ sector. The presentation will focus on the techniques used during the event selection process.
 Speaker: Ms. Eluned Smith (Imperial College) Material:
• 14:30 Searching for new physics using B_d->K*mu+mu- on ATLAS 15'
Weak decays that are naturally suppressed in the Standard Model, such as processes with flavour-changing neutral-currents, are perfect for indirect searches of new physics. The ATLAS study of B_d -> K* mu+mu- is presented, where the forward-backward asymmetry A_FB and the fraction of the K* longitudinal polarisation F_L are extracted from the angular distribution of the final state. The measurement is compared to the expectations from the Standard Model.
 Speaker: Ms. Tamsin Nooney (Queen Mary, University of London) Material:
• 14:45 Search for B+ -> p anti-Lambda with Run I data at LHCb 15'
Theoretical models of rare charmless baryonic B-decays currently have significant uncertanties. Measurements of the branching fractions of these decays will shed light on the correct theoretical description. This talk presents the status of the search for B$^+\rightarrow$p$\bar{\Lambda}$, using the full Run I data from LHCb ($\approx 3 fb^{-1}$). An analysis has been performed  to select this channel, with attention given to the optimisation of the separation of signal and background and to the particle identification calibration. The analysis is currently blinded'', hence based on data excluding the signal region and Monte Carlo samples, to prevent analyst bias, but sensitivity results will be presented.
 Speaker: Mr. Christoph Hombach (LHCb) Material:
• 15:00 First observation and amplitude analysis of B- -> D+K-pi- decay 15'
The B- -> D+K-pi- decay is observed in a data sample corresponding to 3.0 fb-1
of pp collision data recorded by the LHCb experiment during 2011 and 2012. Its
branching fraction is measured to be B(B- -> D+K-pi-) = (7.92 ± 0.23 ± 0.24 ±
0.42)×10-5 where the uncertainties are statistical, systematic and from the branching fraction of the normalisation channel B- → D+pi-pi, respectively. An amplitude analysis of the resonant structure of the B- → D+K-pi- decay is used to measure the contributions from intermediate B- → D*0(2400)0K-, B- → D*2(2460)0K-, and B- → D*J(2760)0K- decays, as well as from nonresonant sources. The D*J(2760)0 resonance is determined to have spin 1.
 Speaker: Ms. Charlotte Wallace (University of Warwick) Material:
• 15:15 COMET: Searching for Muon to Electron Conversion 15'
Neutrinoless  muon decay  is  a long  sought-for process  that  would break  the
well-established principle of lepton flavour conservation. In the last couple of
decades, however, this  quantum number has proven to be  imperfect for neutrinos
themselves  so  that  muon-electron  conversion  must  be  physically  possible.
Fortunately, the  rate of  this process  would be  unobservably low  if neutrino
oscillations were the only method by  which it could occur, making muon-electron
conversion highly sensitive to new physics.

I present here an overview of  the COherent Muon to Electron Transitions (COMET)
experiment, one of the leading  experiments searching for charged lepton flavour
violation with muons.   COMET is being constructed at J-PARC  in Japan, and will
first  take  data during  its  Phase-I  run in  two  years  with a  single-event
sensitivity of  3x10^-15.  Phase-II  will then  improve on  this by  another two
orders of magnitude.

Crucial  to  reaching this  sensitivity  is  the  careful understanding  of  all
potential backgrounds.  Since muon capture  on Aluminium has never been measured
at the rates to be used in COMET,  a separate experiment, AlCap, has been set up
to observe the  other products of the capture process. I  also present a summary
of the AlCap experiment, its results and outlook.
 Speaker: Mr. Benjamin Krikler (Imperial College London) Material:
• 14:00 - 15:30 PPAP Parallel: Neutrino Detectors I  Convener: Dr. Jaroslaw Nowak (Lancaster University), Mr. Steven Wren (University of Manchester) Location: Schuster ( 54-0-28 - Bragg Lecture Theatre )
• 14:00 TITUS: An Intermediate Distance Detector for the Tokai-to-Hyper-Kamiokande Neutrino Beam 15'
The Tokai Intermediate Tank for Unoscillated Spectrum (TITUS) detector is a proposed addition to the Hyper-Kamiokande (Hyper-K) experiment, located approximately 2 km from the J-PARC neutrino beam. The design consists of a 2 kton Gd-doped water Cherenkov tank, partially covered by a magnetised muon range detector. The target material and location were chosen so that the neutrino interactions and beam spectrum at TITUS would match those of Hyper-K. Including a 0.1% Gd concentration allows for nu/antinu discrimination via neutron tagging. The primary goal of TITUS is to measure the neutrino spectrum at the near detector with a very high precision, thus improving the Hyper-Kamiokande CP violation sensitivity. TITUS is also able to precisely measure cross section as a function of the neutron multiplicity and can be used for physics unrelated to the J-PARC beam, functioning as an independent detector for supernova neutrino bursts and measuring the neutron rate to improve Hyper-K proton decay searches.
 Speaker: Mr. Nick Prouse (Queen Mary University of London) Material: Slides
• 14:15 LAr Time Projection Chamber R&D at UCL 15'
Noble gas Time Projection Chambers (TPCs) are becoming the dominant technology for detectors across a number of particle physics research areas. Liquid xenon two-phase TPCs find application in direct dark matter searches, and large scale liquid argon TPCs in neutrino physics.
At UCL we are constructing a TPC with ancillary infrastructure for use with liquid argon to perform R&D and tests for multi-tonne neutrino detectors such as LAr1-ND and the LBNF programme at FNAL.

I will report on the status and latest results of the system including gas handling and purification, temperature and pressure monitoring, and liquid level sensing inside the TPC.
I will briefly present the R&D into scintillation light detection, where we have started testing Silicon Photomultipliers Tubes (SiPMs) along with conventional Photomultipliers Tubes (PMTs).
In addition to scintillation photon detection, we are also investigating charge amplification by using ThGEMs, which could be effective in single phase TPC operation.
 Speaker: Mrs. Laura Manenti (University College London) Material:
• 14:30 Optical Calibration of the SNO+ Experiment using the Laserball 15'
SNO+ is a scintillator based neutrinoless double beta decay experiment located 2 km underground in VALE’s Creighton mine, Lively, Ontario, CA. Prior to the objective physics search in 2016, the experiment will undergo an optical calibration using a variety of insitu light sources in order to characterise the optical response of the detector. One of these light sources is called the laserball, which provides a pulsed, near isotropic light distribution throughout the detector. The optical response is modelled using parameterisation to account for the individual contributions of the detector materials, components and geometry. Using laserball data, the values of these parameters are determined using a statistical fit.
 Speaker: Mr. Robert Stainforth (University of Liverpool) Material:
• 14:45 Initial results from the 288 kg SoLid reactor anti-neutrino detector module 15'
The SoLid collaboration are using a novel, highly segmented, composite scintillator detector design to measure the anti-neutrino energy spectrum between 5 and 10 m from a reactor core.
The aim of the SoLid experiment is to provide the most sensitive search for short distance oscillations and to make the most precise measurement of the anti-neutrino energy spectrum from a highly enriched uranium reactor core.
These measurements will be performed over the next five years at the BR2 reactor at SCK-CEN in Mol, Belgium, and are expected to resolve the reactor neutrino anomaly.

In the last 6 months the collaboration constructed and deployed a 288 kg module of the detector at the BR2 reactor.
The purpose of the module is to demonstrate the effectiveness of using the detector's novel design in selecting the inverse beta decay events from the high rate of backgrounds events.
The detector module was operational during the February 2015 BR2 reactor cycle.
In this talk the SoLid detector design will be reviewed and initial results from the recently taken data will be presented.
 Speaker: Dr. Nick Ryder (Merton College, University of Oxford) Material:
• 15:00 Reactor Anti-neutrino Monitoring with T2K Technology 15'
Preventing nuclear proliferation is a high priority for the international community. Monitoring of nuclear facilities to detect
unauthorised removal of fissile materials from operational cores is
central to this. Anti-neutrino flux and spectral information from inverse beta decay interactions can be used to determine instantaneous reactor power, and, relative core content of
uranium and plutonium.

A tonne-scale anti-neutrino detector has been developed and demonstrated at the University of Liverpool based on the design of the T2K Near Detector Calorimeter. The detector has proven to be robust and reliable while the use of plastic scintillator and SiPMs is ideal for use in close proximity of nuclear reactors. The prototype detector is currently undergoing field tests at the Wylfa Magnox Reactor, Anglesey, UK . This talk will give an overview of the project motivation, detector commissioning and field-testing progress.
 Speaker: Dr. Matthew Murdoch (University of Liverpool) Material:
• 15:15 Study of Field-Induced Electron Emission Phenomena in Liquid Xenon using the LUX Detector 15'
Liquid Xenon TPCs such as LUX are the leading detection technology in direct dark matter searches. They use metal wire grids to establish electric fields in order to drift ionisation electrons released by particle interactions in the liquid xenon target. The onset of electron emission from cathodic wires under high electric fields limits the maximum operating voltage of these TPCs. This onset occurs at a much lower field than expected for processes such as field emission and other causes, and the phenomenology is not well understood. This is especially important in the design of next generation detectors such as LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ), where there is a tension between the optical transparency of these grids for scintillation light and the electric fields experienced on the wire surfaces.

One hypothesis among several is that it is due to local field enhancements on the wire surfaces, caused by imperfections or impurities. Data were taken using the LUX detector, with grid wire voltages increased until the onset of electron emission, with the wires in either the gas or the liquid phase. In both cases the charge is detected via electroluminescence in the gas phase. Creating this emission inside the two-phase xenon detector means that all of the read-out capabilities designed for the dark matter search can be used to study this phenomenology.

For the wires in gas, detailed simulations of electron transport after emission from "perfect" wires were carried out. The emitters seen in the data were consistent with charge multiplication near the wire following emission of single electrons; in one instance the agreement with the simulation is very good, whilst in others there is additional multiplication that the simulation cannot reproduce.

In the liquid we observe emission at a similar electric field (calculated for the perfect wire). In this case we find also emission of a few photons which supports the hypothesis of electron emission (with some electroluminescence in the liquid near the wire) followed by multiplication in a locally-enhanced field.

We discuss this work and its implications for the design and construction of next-generation experiments.
 Speaker: Mr. Bailey Adam (Imperial College London) Material:
• 14:00 - 15:30 NP Parallel : Astrophysics and nuclear reactions  Convener: Dr. Christian Aaen Diget (University of York), Mr. Michael Mallaburn (University of Manchester) Location: Chemistry Building ( 61-0-53 - G53 )
• 14:00 Structure of 25Na Using (d,p) Transfer Reactions and its Relationship to the 24Al(p,gamma)25Si Reaction 15'
Nucleon transfer reactions allow the study of single particle structure in excited states by placing the transfered particle into an excited state without significantly affecting the rest of the nucleus. In this experiment, the SHARC silicon array and the TIGRESS germanium array at TRIUMF were used to measure the 24Na(d,p)25Na reaction. The aim was to study the structure of 25Na and to identify the mirrors of states in 25Si that could be important astrophysically in certain hydrogen-burning scenarios. The radioactive isotope 24Na was produced as a beam at a rate of 104 pps and an energy of 8 MeV/A at the ISAC2 facility and bombarded a CD2 target of thickness 1.0 mg/cm2. The TIGRESS array comprised eight HPGe clover detectors at 90 degrees to the beam and four at 135 degrees. The SHARC array covered essentially all angles backward of 45 degrees in the laboratory frame. The cross sections that will be studied in this reaction can be quantified using spectroscopic factors or alternatively Asymptotic Normalisation Coefficients (ANCs). The theoretical relationships recently derived to relate ANCs between mirror nuclei will allow us to deduce the strength of the 24Al(p,gamma)25Si reaction, which has been predicted to be important in certain environments during the rp-process in stellar burning. A recent analysis of r-process rates predicts that the states most likely to be populated in the astrophysical reaction are the third 9/2+ state, the third 7/2+ state and the fourth 5/2+ state, which appear around 3.9 MeV in 25Si. Shell model calculations using the USD-A interaction confirm that the mirrors of these states should be strongly populated in (d,p) transfer leading to 25Na. The present work also extends our nuclear structure studies in this region, which have included 26Na via the (d,p) reaction induced by a 25Na beam. Data showing the performance of the TIGRESS gamma-ray array will be shown. Preliminary results from the reaction study will include the Doppler-corrected gamma ray energy spectra, and charged particle data from the SHARC array displaying the expected kinematical behaviour for the (d,p) reaction and elastic (d,d) scattering in inverse kinematics.

This work was performed together with the TIGRESS and SHARC collaborations, including groups from LPC Caen, TRIUMF and University of York.
 Speaker: Mr. Andrew Knapton (University of Surrey)
• 14:15 Measurement of 23Na(α,p)26Mg at energies relevant to 26Al production in massive stars and nucleosynthesis in SNIa 15'
The galactic distribution of 26Al can be mapped using gamma-ray telescopes to detect the characteristic 1.809-MeV gamma-ray produced as a result of its decay to 26Mg. These maps suggest massive stars as the main production site for 26Al, though this is still uncertain. Four reactions have been identified using post processing codes as having a significant effect on the 26Al produced during several different burning stages in massive stars, one of which is the 23Na(α,p)26Mg reaction. This reaction is influential during neon/carbon convective shell burning as it provides protons for the production of 26Al via the reaction 25Mg(p,γ)26Al. Additionally the reaction is thought to be influential during nucleosynthesis in type 1a supernovae.
Until recently astrophysical models used the theoretical non-SMOKER rate for the 23Na(α,p)26Mg reaction due to insufficient experimental data in the Gamow window. A direct measurement of 23Na(α,p)26Mg was performed in inverse kinematics using the TUDA scattering chamber at the TRIUMF. The measurement was made at energies of Ecm = 1.7 - 3.1 MeV, corresponding to neon/carbon convective shell burning in massive stars at T∼1.25 GK and nucleosynthesis in type 1a supernova at T∼ 2 - 4 GK. The astrophysical motivation, experimental setup and results will be discussed.
 Speaker: Ms. Jessica Tomlinson (University of York) Material:
• 14:30 Key Resonances in 26Mg and their implications for the astrophysical s-process 15'
The astrophysical r- and s-processes are responsible for the production of elements heavier than iron. The s-process involves a series of neutron captures slower than the average beta-decay rates of unstable nuclei. The main component of the s-process  is expected to produce stable nuclei with masses A > 90, while its weak component is expected to produce nuclei with  60 < A <90. The weak component of the  s-process takes place during the Helium burning phase of massive stars (M> 13 solar masses), where the temperature becomes as high as T ~ 0.2 GK. In these environments, the 22Ne(alpha,n)25Mg reaction is the primary source of neutrons for the s-process. However, 22Ne(alpha,gamma)26Mg competes with 22Ne(alpha,n)25Mg in the destruction of  22Ne without producing any neutrons. The isotopic abundances in massive stars are very sensitive to variations in the flux of neutrons produced in this reaction. Therefore, accurate measurement of the reaction rate of both processes is required in  order to predict the s-process yield in these astrophysical conditions. The 22Ne(alpha,gamma)26Mg reaction is expected to be dominated by individual resonance states between Salpha and Sn in 26Mg (Ex = 10615-11093 keV). Consequently,  a precise investigation of the excited levels of 26Mg is crucial for an accurate measurement of the rate of the reaction. A detailed gamma-ray spectroscopy study of 26Mg was performed by populating its excited states and detecting their subsequent decays with the Gammasphere array. Excited levels in  26Mg, including ones in the range of astrophysical importance, have been identified and angular distribution information has been extracted. These implications of these states for the astrophysical s-process will be presented.
 Speaker: Ms. Ralitsa Ilieva (University of Surrey) Material:
• 14:45 Spectroscopic study of 27Al states above the neutron threshold via the 26Mg(3He,d) reaction 15'
26Al is believed to be responsible for the excess of 26Mg relative to 24Mg seen in Calcium Aluminium rich Inclusions (CAIs). As CAIs were among the first solids to condense in the early solar system, understanding the origin of 26Al is essential to constrain the astrophysical conditions present at the formation of the solar system. Reaction network calculations have shown that the 26Al destruction reactions 26Al(n,p)26Mg and 26Al(n,α)23Na are among the most uncertain with a factor of two of accuracy required to minimize uncertainties in 26Al production. Knowledge of individual resonances in these reactions, corresponding to states above the neutron threshold in 27Al will help to constrain reaction rates.

The 26Mg(3He,d)27Al transfer reaction was performed at the Maier-Liebnitz Laboratory in Munich using the Q3D magnetic spectrometer in order to assign spin parity information to states seen above the neutron threshold in a recent 27Al(p,p')27Al inelastic scattering study.  Experimental details and results will be presented and compared to theoretical DWBA calculations performed using the FRESCO code.
 Speaker: Mr. Stephen Gillespie (University of York) Material:
• 15:00 The role of the deuteron d-state on nonlocal effects in (d,p) reactions 15'
(d,p) and (p,d) reactions have played a key role in nuclear physics for many decades, and the models developed to describe them have proved generally effective. These models often use local optical model potentials to represent the deuteron-target interaction. Within
these models the deuteron d-state is usually associated with spin observables and polarisation effects. However recent work, that includes the inherent nonlocality of the nucleon-target optical model potentials in adiabatic (d,p) reaction theory (which accounts for deuteron break-up), shows that there are important effects from large relative n-p momenta inside the deuteron. It is known that for such momenta the d-state will dominate the wavefunction, and could have a noticeable influence on observables (cross-sections, spectroscopic factors etc).
So, it has now become relevant to incorporate the d-state into an nonlocal adiabatic nonlocal model for (d,p) reactions.
This talk will show current work towards constructing such a model. The effect of the d-state on distorting potential terms will be shown and an outlook on future work into performing transfer reaction calculations will be presented.
 Speaker: Mr. Greg Bailey (University of Surrey) Material:
• 15:15 Alpha clustering in fp-shell nuclei: the 40, 44, 48Ca + alpha resonant reaction 15'
It has been predicted theoretically and observed experimentally that alpha clustering plays an important role in the structure of light nuclei [1]. However it is equally apparent that mean field approaches to nuclear structure describe the properties of heavy nuclei very well, despite being based on assumptions which contradict the cluster model. This leads to the idea that as the nuclear mass increases there must be a transition from the cluster model regime to the mean field regime, and raises the question that if such a transition exists, is it possible to locate and identify it? The present work aims to explore this idea by investigating alpha clustering in the fp-shell. Three isotopes: 44,48,52Ti were examined, with an emphasis placed on analysing the significance of the alpha + 40,44,48Ca cluster-core structures. The intention here was to probe the evolution of this cluster-core structure across the entire fp-shell using a single consistent technique.

Measurements were made of three resonant scattering spectra, each at a centre-of-mass scattering angle of 180o: 4He(40Ca,alpha), 4He(44Ca,alpha) and 4He(48Ca,alpha). These measurements were made using the Thick Target Inverse Kinematics technique [2] each with a thick 4He gas target but using three different beams 40Ca, 44Ca and 48Ca. From the resonances in these measurements information can be extracted on the nature of the compound nuclei: 44Ti, 48Ti or 52Ti respectively.

R-matrix theory was used in a statistical formulation to compare the average reduced alpha widths < gammaalpha > of the three nuclei based on the amplitude of the resonances, supported by a wavelet analysis to extract the average widths of the resonances in the three spectra. This presentation will summarise the current state of the analysis.

[1] W. von Oertzen, M. Freer, and Yoshiko Kanada-En'yo. 'Nuclear clusters and nuclear molecules'. Physics Reports, 432:43-113, 2006.

[2] K. P. Artemov et al. 'Effective method of study of alpha-cluster states'. Sov. J. Nucl. Phys., 52:408-411, 1990.
 Speaker: Mr. Sam Bailey (University of Birmingham) Material:
• 14:00 - 15:30 NP Parallel : Nuclear structure around N~82  Convener: Dr. Thomas Elias COCOLIOS (The University of Manchester), Mr. Gregory Farooq-Smith (University of Manchester) Location: Chemistry Building ( 61-0-54 - G54 )
• 14:00 Shape coexistence in the neutron-deficient Pb region: Coulomb excitation at REX-ISOLDE 15'
The region of neutron-deficient nuclei close to Z=82 is well known for its manifestation of shape coexistence, with competition between different spherical, oblate and prolate structures. A large programme of Coulomb-excitation experiments has been undertaken at REX-ISOLDE in order to provide precise and extensive measurements of electromagnetic matrix elements. In particular, low-lying E2 matrix elements hold the key to understanding the shape of, and the mixing between, competing structures in this region. While there are many complementary techniques to study nuclear structure, Coulomb excitation adds substantial information detailing shape-coexistence, such as spectroscopic quadrupole moments, in a model-independent manner.

This talk will show results from the afore-mentioned campaign, with a focus on the radon and polonium isotopes. The data has been analysed using the least-squares search code, GOSIA, and will be presented in terms of the quadrupole collective parameters. One approach to the interpretation that will be detailed is that of the two-state-mixing model. This has proved to be a powerful, if not simplified, way of describing the mercury and polonium isotopes. Comparisons to state-of-the-art beyond-mean-field calculations will also be explored.
 Speaker: Gaffney Liam (KU Leuven / University of the West of Scotland) Material:
• 14:15 Identification of a dipole band above the 31/2- isomeric state in 189Pb 15'
New prompt transitions have been observed in the neutron deficient nucleus 189Pb. The presented data is from an experiment performed at the Accelerator Laboratory of the University of Jyvaskyla. Excited states in 189Pb were populated using the 106Pd(86Kr,3n) fusion-evaporation reaction, with a beam energy of 355 MeV and a beam current of 10 pnA. Prompt gamma-rays were detected by the JUROGAM II high purity germanium array, which surrounded the target position. Recoiling nuclei were separated from scattered beam products by the RITU gas filled recoil separator, after which the recoils were implanted in a pair of double-sided silicon strip detectors (DSSDs). The DSSDs along with planar and clover germanium detectors form the GREAT spectrometer, which allows for the detection of decay products from the recoils and associated delayed $\gamma$-rays. The timestamping of each individual event allows for the correlation of individual detector events from the different spectrometers.

A new dipole band has been discovered, making 189Pb the lightest odd-mass Pb nucleus to show a dipole band discovered to date. The band is built upon a 32 -2+10 us, 31/2- isomeric state and consists of six newly observed transitions. Recoil-isomer tagged spectra have been produced to verify that the multipolarities of the newly observed prompt transitions are of a dipole nature through the use of angular intensity ratios and x-ray intensity arguments. The excitation energy and alignment of the new states show some discrepancies compared to the systematics displayed between equivalent spin states in the dipole bands of heavier, odd-mass, Pb nuclei. The removal of this inconsistency with bandhead spin changes in heavier odd-mass Pb nuclei is explored. Additional transitions, independent of the dipole band, have also been seen and correlated with the previously identified 189Pb gamma-rays and will also be discussed.
 Speaker: Mr. Duncan Hodge (University of Manchester)
• 14:30 Coulomb Excitation of 206Hg with AGATA at GSI 15'
The region of the nuclear chart surrounding the doubly-magic nucleus 208Pb provides a key area to constrain and develop contemporary nuclear structure models. Here, we report on measurements of B(E2;0+->2+) transition strength in nuclei in the vicinity of 208Pb, namely 198,200,202Pb, 206Hg and 200Pt.

The nuclei of interest were synthesized using relativistic-energy projectile fragmentation at the GSI facility in Germany. They were produced in the fragmentation of a primary 208Pb beam at an energy of 1 GeV per nucleon, and separated and identifed using the Fragment Separator. The secondary beams with an energy of 140 MeV per nucleon were Coulomb excited on a secondary target of 400mg/cm2gold. Gamma-rays were detected with the Advanced GAmma Tracking Array (AGATA). The precise scattering angle for Doppler-correction was determined with position information from the Lund-York-Cologne-CAlorimeter(LYCCA).

Using the sophisticated racking algorithm native to AGATA, Doppler-corrected-ray spectra have been produced for different nuclei. Now at an advanced stage,and following recent advancements and substantial improvements, the analysis yields peaks for the nuclei of interest 206Hg, as well as the calibration peak from 206Pb. The ground state/isomeric state composition of the beams of these nucleihave also been measured, and subsequently the B(E2) of the first 2+ excited state in 206Hg is extracted from the data.
 Speaker: Mr. Tom Alexander (University of Surrey)
• 14:45 Hyperfine structure studies of At isotopes using in-source laser spectroscopy at ISOLDE 15'
The competition between spherical and deformed configurations at low energy gives rise to shape coexistence in the neutron-deficient isotopes around the Z=82 shell closure [1], while on the neutron-rich side effects due to octupole deformation could be important. In order to determine the extent to which the ground and isomeric states of these nuclides are affected by these phenomena, an extended campaign of investigation of changes in the mean-square charge radii is being conducted at ISOLDE by the Windmill Collaboration. The measurements rely on the high sensitivity provided by a combination of the in-source laser spectroscopy with RILIS, ISOLDE mass separation and Windmill spectroscopy setup [2].
During the September 2014 IS534-III experiment, a collaborative effort was made by the RILIS [3], ISOLTRAP [4] and Windmill teams to investigate HFS/IS in a long chain of isotopes ranging from 194At to 219At (Z=85, N=109-134) [5]. These isotopes span from the region of expected deformation near the neutron mid-shell at N=104, across the spherical region at N=126, before reaching an area of predicted octupole deformation at N=132. In this contribution, we will present the systematics of the charge radii obtained from this isotopic chain.
[1] K. Heyde and J. Wood, Rev. Mod. Phys., 83, 1467 (2011)
[2] A.N. Andreyev et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 252502 (2010)
[3] B.A. Marsh et al., Nucl. Instr. and Meth. B 317, 550-556 (2013)
[4] R.N. Wolf et al., Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A 686, 82-90 (2012)
[5] A.N. Andreyev, A. E. Barzakh, V. N. Fedosseev, P. Van Duppen et al., IS534-III experiment
at ISOLDE (Sep 2014)
*On behalf of ISOLTRAP – RILIS – Windmill – Bratislava-Leuven-Gatchina-ISOLDE-Mainz-
Manchester-York Collaboration
 Speaker: Mr. James Cubiss (University of York) Material:
• 15:00 Fine structure in the alpha decay of 221Th -> 217Ra 15'
Fine structure in $\alpha$ decay can provide valuable information in the study of the structure of nuclei. The degree to which an $\alpha$ decay is hindered can give a clear indication of the configurations of the states populated before and after the decay. Also, by measuring $\gamma$ rays and conversion electrons following the $\alpha$ decay a level scheme of excited states populated in the daughter nucleus can be inferred. Coincidences between $\alpha$ particles and $\gamma$ rays from the $\alpha$ decay of 221Th have been studied. The $^{221}$Th nuclei were produced in the fusion-evaporation reaction $^{208}$Pb($^{18}$O,5n)$^{221}$Th at the Accelerator Laboratory of the University of Jyv\"askyl\"a, Finland. Two new $\alpha$ decays have been identified from $^{221}$Th with $\alpha$-particle energies 7941(8) and 8244(3) keV and a level scheme of the states populated in the daughter nucleus $^{217}$Ra has been constructed. The levels in $^{217}$Ra are compared to those in its isotone nucleus $^{215}$Rn, and are assigned to different configurations of the three valence neutrons above the N=126 shell closure.
 Speaker: Dr. Edward Parr (University of the West of Scotland)
• 15:15 A Study of Shape Coexistence in Au-179 15'
The phenomenon of shape coexistence in exotic nuclei is a topic of considerable interest in nuclear physics. An accelerated (5pnA) beam of Kr-82 bombarding a Ru-100 target was used to study nuclei in the vicinity of the Z=82 shell gap and the proton drip line. Gamma ray and conversion electron coincidences were measured using the SAGE spectrometer in conjunction with the RITU separator and the GREAT tagging spectrometer at the University of Jyvaskyla. The analysis of the p2n channel probing the structure of coexisting states in the neutron-deficient nuclide Au-179 is reported.
 Speaker: Ms. Faye Wearing (University of Liverpool) Material:
• 14:00 - 15:30 PPAP Parallel: Beam Properties  Convener: Prof. Ian Shipsey (Purdue University), Mr. Dominik Mueller (University of Manchester) Location: Chemistry Building ( 61-0-51 - G51 )
• 14:00 Progress of MICE , the Muon Ionization Cooling Experiment 15'
The talk will outline
the steps MICE achieved so far
physics and construction status of upcoming Step IV
plans for final muon ionization cooling demostration step
 Speaker: Prof. Vittorio Palladino (University and INFN Napoli, Italy) Material:
• 14:15 Systematic effects of misalignments on the reconstruction of the muon beam emittance in the MICE cooling channel 15'
The International Muon Ionisation Cooling Experiment is expected to finish construction and comissioning during 2015. A vital component of the comissioning process is understanding the physical phenomena that may systematically affect the measurement of statistical beam properties. The precise measurement of the emittance of the MICE muon beam is the key component of the MICE measurement plan, and as such, any sources of systematic error should be modelled ahead of the analysis phase in order to correctly determine the full measurement uncertainty.
A range of cooling channel geoemtries have been created to probe the effects of misalignments that could occur during the construction of the experiment. Monte Carlo simulations have been used to produce reconstructed tracks in the MICE spectrometers, such that deviations in the reconstructed Monte Carlo emittance and beta-function can be observed when compared with an ideal geometry. A detailed analysis script has been developed to make the required measurements and aid in the comissioning of the cooling channel. Recent results show good agreement between Monte Carlo truth and reconstructed Monte Carlo data, in addition to well resolved but small effects in the reconstructed beam properties.
 Speaker: Mr. Christopher Hunt (Imperial College London) Material:
• 14:30 Measuring the LHC luminosity with the ATLAS detector 15'
An accurate knowledge of the luminosity delivered by the LHC underpins precise cross-section measurements. The absolute luminosity scale can be obtained with data taken in dedicated runs known as van der Meer (vdM) scans. These scans allow to measure under special circumstances the luminosity from accelerator parameters, which enables the calibration of the luminosity during normal run conditions.  This talks presents the main steps in an analysis of the vdM scan data and calibration results for the 2013 proton-lead run, where a preliminary systematic uncertainty of 2% has been achieved.
 Speaker: Mr. Miguel Arratia (University of Cambridge) Material:
• 14:45 Measurement of the intrinsic electron neutrino and electron anti-neutrino components in the T2K beam with the ND280 Tracker 15'
In 2014 the T2K experiment reversed the polarity of the magnetic horns
and began running with a beam of anti-neutrinos. Differences in neutrino and antineutrino oscillation probabilities between neutrinos flavours will provide
insight into CP violation in the leptonic sector. In order to
measure the electron anti-neutrino contamination in the predominantly muon anti-neutrino beam, an electron anti-neutrino selection has been developed for the ND280 near detector and tested using Monte-Carlo simulations. This selection faces new challenges not seen in the electron neutrino selection, most significantly the removal of protons is complicated as the dE/dx measured in the TPC, our primary PID, overlaps for protons and positrons in the 1GeV region. Additional selection criteria have been developed, these along with the systematic uncertainties of the analysis will be described.
 Speaker: Mr. Luke Southwell (Lancaster University) Material:
• 15:00 A Study of Beam Polarization within the cooling channel of the Muon Ionization Cooling Experiment (MICE) 15'
Muon ionization cooling is necessary for the production of high intensity muon beams required for a Neutrino Factory or Muon Collider. The international Muon Ionization Cooling Experiment (MICE), currently under construction at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL), aims to make the first measurements of muon ionization cooling.

Decay electrons in MICE tend to spoil the cooling measurement by introducing an apparent emittance increase in the beam. The number of decay electrons in the beam is dependent on beam polarisation. In this talk, the beam polarisation will be examined using the MICE Electron-Muon Ranger (EMR), a totally active scintillating detector.
 Speaker: Ms. Sophie Middleton (Imperial) Material:
• 15:15 Measurement of the pion contamination in the MICE beam 15'
The international Muon Ionisation Experiment (MICE) will perform a systematic investigation of ionisation cooling of a 200 MeV/c muon beam at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory ISIS facility. Ionization cooling channels are required for the Neutrino Factory and the Muon Collider. In 2015 data will be taken with MICE in its Step IV configuration followed by the demonstation of ionization cooling in 2017. It is essential to limit the contamination of pions in the MICE muon beam to be below 1% in or- der to perform a precise measurement of ionisation cooling of muons. The MICE muon beam has been commissioned and it has been demonstrated that this beam meets the emittance and muon momentum requirements to perform the MICE physics programme. In this presentation it is shown that the MICE beam also meets the stringent pion contamination require- ments, using particle identification detectors that are used to characterise the MICE beam, showing good agreement with the expectation. These data demonstrate that the muon beam designed and built at the ISIS facility meets all the requirements to carry out a comprehensive physics programme that aims to measure ionisation cooling using the MICE cool- ing channel.
 Speaker: Mr. John Nugent (University of Glasgow) Material:
• 14:00 - 15:30 PPAP Parallel: Double Beta Decay  Convener: Dr. Simon Peeters (Lancaster University), Mr. Salvatore Davide Porzio (The University of Manchester) Location: Schuster ( 54-0-62 - Blackett Lecture Theatre )
• 14:00 New measurement of the 2vBB decay T1/2 for Nd150->Sm150 (0+->0+) and limit on the 0vBB decay T1/2 from the NEMO3 experiment 15'
The NEMO-3 experiment searches for neutrino-less double beta (0νββ) decay in seven different isotopes simultaneously by reconstructing the full event topology of each decay.  One of the investigated isotopes is Nd-150, which has the second highest Q-value (3.167 MeV) of all 0νββ candidate isotopes, as well as a favourable phase space factor and matrix element.  Using the full data set from NEMO-3 detector, a new measurement of the 2νββ decay for Nd-150 to the ground state of Sm-150 has been obtained, and a limit for the half-life of 0νββ decay has been set for a number of BSM mechanisms.
 Speaker: Ms. Summer Blot (Univ Manchester) Material:
• 14:15 Investigating SNO+ sensitivity to Majoron-emitting neutrinoless double beta decay modes 15'
SNOLAB's multi-purpose neutrino detector SNO+ aims to study neutrinoless double beta decay, amongst other goals in neutrino physics. To achieve this goal, SNO+ will study, primarily, neutrinoless double beta decay via the standard mechanism involving the exchange of a light Majorana neutrino. Nevertheless, there are other mechanisms that can be used to probe this rare process, such as decays involving the emission of one or two Majorons, which have already been studied by KamLAND-Zen and EXO. This analysis aims to investigate the potential sensitivity of SNO+ to these neutrinoless double beta decay modes. I will introduce the Majoron-emitting modes that have been looked at and present the current expected sensitivity to each mode.
 Speaker: Mr. Ashley Back (Queen Mary, University of London) Material:
• 14:30 A combined limit on the neutrino mass from neutrinoless double-beta decay 15'
The search for neutrinoless double-beta decay is important in determining the Majorana nature of the neutrino, and also in establishing if lepton number is violated. In this work, we combine the published data from five recent neutrinoless double-beta decay experiments: CUORICINO, EXO-200, GERDA, KamLAND-Zen and NEMO-3. As these experiments observed different isotopes, their half-lives cannot be directly combined, and Nuclear Matrix Element (NME) calculations have to be used to relate their results. We present the combined limits for the effective neutrino mass for 8 different NME model calculations.
 Speaker: Pawel Guzowski (Manchester) Material:
• 14:45 The SuperNEMO tracker construction and commissioning 15'
This talk discuss the current status of the construction and testing of the SuperNEMO Demonstrator Module's tracker.

The SuperNEMO detector will search for neutrinoless double beta decay at the Modane Underground Laboratory situated on the Fréjus tunnel under the Alps. This decay mode, if observed, would be proof that the neutrino is its own antiparticle. The experiment is designed to reach a half-life sensitivity of 10^{26}  years.

The detector design allows complete topological reconstruction of the double beta decay event enabling excellent levels of background rejection. In the event of a discovery, such topological measurements will be vital in determining the nature of the lepton number violating process.

The main challenge in the tracker design is the strict radiopurity requirements necessary to limit the background. Every component is carefully screened and each section of the tracker, once assembled, is checked for Radon emanation.

The first module of SuperNEMO, called the Demonstrator Module, is currently under construction; the tracker, which contains 2034 drift cells operated in Geiger mode, is being built in the UK.
 Speaker: Dr. Michele Cascella (UCL) Material:
• 15:00 Pileup background rejection in SNO+ experiment 15'
SNO+ is a low background experiment that aims to study rare physical
phenomena such as neutrinoless double beta decay in Tellurium. For this
reason it is crucial to understand and to be able to reject the
backgrounds in the region of interest for neutrinoless double beta decay.Among ordinary background events, it is possible for more than one isotope to decay within the same trigger window and therefore create so called "pileups". Since the properties of these combined events are different from the properties of the single background events, pileups have to be studied separately. My study is focused on developing techniques that will be able to reject the pileups events in the region of interest for neutrinoless double beta decay.
 Speaker: Ms. Evelina Arushanova (QMUL) Material:
• 15:15 Scintillator purification and development in the SNO+ Experiment 15'
SNO+ is a large liquid scintillator multi-purpose experiment located at SNOLAB, in the Creighton mine, at 6000 m.w.e. SNO+ first aim is to detect the neutrinoless double beta decay of Te-130, but it also cover a broader physics program including solar neutrino, geoneutrinos and supernovae neutrinos. In all the cases, the knowledge of the optical properties of the scintillator are essential to understand and optimize the light production and collection in the SNO+ detector. Furthermore, the purity of the scintillator is of essential importance, due to the low rates expected for the signal. In this work, I will present a novel purification technique for tellurium loaded scintillators that has been developed by the collaboration and that reduces the U/Th concentration and several cosmic-activated isotopes by at least a factor 10^2 -10^3 in a single pass. Furthermore, I will discuss the scintillator development studies and the optical properties measured inside the collaboration for the different components of the scintillator.
 Speaker: Dr. Laura Segui (University of Oxford) Material:
• 14:00 - 15:30 PPAP Parallel: Electroweak I  Convener: Prof. Peter Hobson (Brunel University London), Ms. Michaela Queitsch-Maitland (University of Manchester) Location: Schuster ( 54-0-64 - Moseley Lecture Theatre )
• 14:00 Measurement WV cross sections in the semileptonic channel at the ATLAS detector 15'
An analysis of of WW+WZ production at  8 TeV is discussed. The fiducial and total diboson cross section is measured in the WW/WZ→lνjj (semileptonic) decay channel, where the lepton can be a muon or an electron. A particular focus is placed on the boosted regime, looking at vector bosons with very high transverse momenta. In addition, there is potential to study the anomalous triple gauge coupling (aTGC).
 Speaker: Mr. David Freeborn (UCL) Material:
• 14:15 Measurement of WZ production at 8 TeV 15'
The measurement of diboson production provides a precise test of the electroweak sector of the Standard Model (SM).

So far the SM has been very successful at describing experimental data currently available from the Tevatron and SLD. Triple and Quartic gauge boson coupling (TGC's and QGC's) have however not yet been measured to the same precision.

In the SM these QGC vertices are completely fixed by the electroweak gauge structure, any deviations may cause enhanced production cross-sections at high diboson invariant mass due to anomalous gauge boson couplings (aTGC's and aQGC's).

The WZ working group has made measurements of the total and fiducial WZ cross-sections, as well as setting limits on aTGC's. An overview of these results will be presented. In addition a measurement of the polarization fractions of the W boson in WZ diboson events will be shown. This measurement may be used to set cross-section independent limits on aTGC's.

Further to this, studies have been performed to determine how the extension of the tracking in the ATLAS detector would benefit the WZ measurement. A review of this work will also be presented.
 Speaker: Ms. Sarah Barnes (University of Manchester) Material:
• 14:30 The LHC as a Right-Handed Neutrino Factory 15'
Left-Right Symmetric Models restore parity to the Standard Model by introducing right-handed neutrinos, which, if heavy, can provide an explanation for the small masses of the known neutrinos via the Seesaw Mechanism. A particular channel of interest includes the production of these neutrinos and right-handed W bosons with a 2 lepton-plus-2 jets final state, which allows the possible Dirac or Majorana nature of the right-handed neutrinos to be probed. We discuss how previous studies of this channel at the LHC (carried out with the PYTHIA Monte Carlo generator) suffer from noticeably incorrect kinematic distributions of the final state particles, with implications for the current exclusion limits. An implementation using the MadGraph event generator is presented that promises to fix the observed problems and give a more reliable recipe for the upcoming Run-2 searches.
 Speaker: Ms. Xanthe Hoad (University of Edinburgh) Material:
• 14:45 Electroweak physics in the forward region 15'
LHCb has an active electroweak physics programme with measurements of inclusive processes such as Z and W production in leptonic final states already published. The EW working group is also branching into jet physics with completed Z+jet and Z+b-jet analyses. Recent results in this field will be presented.
 Speaker: Mr. Marek Sirendi (University of Cambridge) Material:
• 15:00 Boosted W boson identification during Run II at the ATLAS experiment 15'
The LHC will restart in 2015 for Run II, with collisions at energies of √s=13 and 14 TeV,
with the possibility of many new particles and phenomena being discovered. One of
the many significant challenges during Run II will be identifying high momentum particles which become boosted at these energies, coupled with a more difficult pileup environment.  Boosted high momentum jets and bosons decay hadronically in a very narrow cone, increasing the chance of multiple jets or bosons being reconstructed as a single jet. Grooming and clustering techniques combined with substructure variables can be applied to the jet reconstruction to mitigate these problems.  I will present the results of applying these techniques for "boosted W boson tagging" and discuss the possibility of applying this tagger to the search for di-boson final states.
 Speaker: Mr. Timothy Bristow (University of Edinburgh) Material:
• 15:15 Measurement of |Vub| with Λb -> p μ ν decays 15'
A measurement of the ratio of branching fractions of $Lambda_{b} \rightarrow p \mu \nu$ and  $\Lambda_{b} \rightarrow \Lambda^{+}_{c} \mu \nu$ decays at high momentum transfer squared is made using 2fb$^{-}$ of LHCb data.  Combining this measurement with the latest Lattice QCD results for these decay the first determination of $|V_{ub}| at a hadron collider is made. In addition, this is the first observation of$Lambda_{b} \rightarrow p \mu \nu$decays for which a determination of the branching fraction is provided.  Speaker: Mr. Willliam Sutcliffe (Imperial College London) Material: • 15:30 - 16:00 Coffee break • 16:00 - 17:00 NP Parallel : Medical Physics  Convener: Dr. Laura Harkness-Brennan (University of Liverpool), Mr. Robert Frost (Manchester) Location: Chemistry Building ( 61-0-53 - G53 ) • 16:00 Optimisation of ProSPECTus: A Compton Camera for Medical Imaging 15' Medical imaging is an expanding field tasked with improving diagnostic capabilities. The ProSPECTus system at the University of Liverpool is a novel prototype Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) system that employs semiconductor detectors in Compton camera mode. Conventional SPECT systems utilise gamma cameras to create images through tracing the distribution of a radiopharmaceutical inside a patient. A key component of the gamma camera is a mechanical collimator, which is required to reconstruct the path of incident gamma rays. Collimators are made of heavy metal and induce inefficiencies to the detector system as a significant fraction of incident gamma rays are absorbed before reaching the detection medium, which is typically a scintillator crystal. The ProSPECTus system has been designed to alleviate the limitations present in current SPECT systems. Collimation is achieved electronically with the use of two highly segmented detectors, so that no mechanical collimator is required. The basic principle of Compton imaging is that a gamma ray interacts at least once in each detector and deposits its full energy. The energy deposits and position of interaction in each detector is then used via the Compton Scatter formula to locate the position of the incoming radiation. Imaging with ProSPECTus will make possible multi isotope imaging and increase detection efficiency, which can lead to either reduced patient dose or quicker scans. Simultaneous image acquisition with Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) systems will also be possible with ProSPECTus. Initial experimental imaging of radioactive point sources and medical phantoms with ProSPECTus is underway. The image resolution achievable with the ProSPECTus system is being investigated through analysis of this experimental data and through data acquired using a GAMOS model of the ProSPECTus system. GAMOS is a Geant4 based toolkit that has been previously validated with Compton camera experimental data. Presented will be the principles behind Compton Imaging, benefits that will be possible through this imaging technique, the steps that have been taken to optimise the ProSPECTus system, the current status of the ProSPECTus project and both experimental and simulation results carried out to assess the performance capabilities of the detector system.  Speaker: Ms. Amina Patel (University of Liverpool) Material: • 16:15 CERN-MEDICIS: a new source of radioisotopes for medical research 15' The CERN-MEDICIS project (MEDical Isotopes Collected from ISolde) is a new facility currently under construction next to the CERN-ISOLDE radioactive ion beam facility. It consists in a new set of target stations that can be irradiated parasitically, using CERN’s proton beam after it has passed through the ISOLDE target. The irradiated material can then be removed from the high-radiation target area by means of a rail system and a mechanical arm. An off-line front end and mass separator is being installed next to class-A facilities to allow the separation of almost any long-lived radioisotopes, benefitting from 50 years of radioactive ion beam experience at ISOLDE. Those radioisotopes are aimed at medical research, in order to provide pre-clinical and phase-1 clinical research facilities with radioisotopes of high potential impact for therapy and diagnostics, but which are not currently available on the market. Once new isotopes can be identified through those research, bespoke business cases may then be established to define a path to commercialisation. As this project catches momentum, the UK community has a unique opportunity to jump onboard and benefit from the impact of its experience in radioactive ion beam research, as well as support its premium medical research facilities. In this contribution, I shall introduce the CERN-MEDICIS facilities, existing and under construction, and highlight where the UK Nuclear Physics community can make substantial new contributions.  Speaker: Dr. Thomas Elias COCOLIOS (The University of Manchester) Material: • 16:30 Monte Carlo modeling 90Y SPECT for Molecular Radiotherapy 15' Conventional SPECT imaging techniques used with gamma emmiting radiopharmaceuticals eg 99mTc, provides inadequate imaging for molecular radiotherapy (MRT) with bremsstrahlung emission. Monte Carlo is a powerful technique for optimising imaging and activity quantification for MRT, providing unique information on the behaviour of decay products and deposited dose. Validation of Monte Carlo codes by comparison to experimental measurement is particularly important when applied to complex sytems such as the somatogenic decay of radioisotopes. 90Y provides significant benefits for the treatment of neuroendocrine tumours and metastatic liver cancers. Bremsstrahlung production, and subsequent SPECT camera measurement, for 90Y has been modeled using a variety of Monte Carlo codes (GATE, Geant4, MCNP). Significant disagreement with experimental data is observed across Monte Carlo codes for low energy bremsstrahlung production for 90Y. This potentially significantly limits the application of Monte Carlo simulation for 90Y and other bremmstrahlung therapy isotopes. The validity of current Monte Carlo simulation codes for low energy bremsstrahlung production will be presented. Potential methods for applying Monte Carlo simulation to bremsstrahlung therapy will be discussed.  Speaker: Mr. Christopher Oldfield (University of Manchester) Material: • 16:45 Cerenkov counting for PET radiopharmaceutical quality control via microfluidic analysis techniques and lab-on-a-chip platforms 15' Radiopharmaceuticals, such as 2-[18F]fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose ([18F]FDG), for positron emission tomography (PET) must undergo rigorous quality control (QC) of the radiation dose and its purity prior to patient administration, as laid out by the European Pharmacopoeia. Current QC packages can be costly, in terms of working volume (typically ml), measurement time (up to 40 minutes, which should be considered in the context of the 18F half life of 109.7 mins), and lab space, with several instruments required at present. The presented system seeks to provide significant savings in all of these areas. Through exploitation of microfluidic techniques experimentation can be performed with small sample volumes (nl), and while it is a proven technology in the fields of clinical diagnostics and bioanalysis, its use as a means for radioanalysis is not currently commonplace. Standard techniques for providing these measurements would involve detecting annihilation photons with inorganic scintillators, creating a somewhat bulky system. By removing the need for the coupled scintillator-PMT component, the same information can be recorded while avoiding the additional size, edge transmission losses, and cost of the traditional system. Indeed, our Geant4 simulations highlighting the penetrability of the emitted positron, coupled with the optical transmission efficiency of the chip material, make exploitation of the Cerenkov phenomena a useful alternative. Our system combines microfluidic analysis techniques with silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) technology, allowing evaluation of either Cerenkov or scintillation light pulses. With the recent improvements made in SiPM technologies they have become especially suited to these scaled-down systems providing capability for on-chip half-life determination and chromatographic separation analysis. We will present results on the initial calibration study using 18F, as well as comparative coincidence measurements using a variety of scintillating materials.  Speaker: Dr. Matthew Taggart (University of Sheffield) Material: • 16:00 - 17:00 NP Parallel : Hadron physics  Convener: Dr. Daria Sokhan (University of Glasgow, UK), Mr. Shane Wilkins (University of Manchester) Location: Chemistry Building ( 61-0-54 - G54 ) • 16:00 Understanding neutral pion photoproduction using Chiral Perturbation Theory. 15' QCD provides some of nature's most challenging calculations. But, methods exist that let us bypass the complex mathematics that still provide accurate descriptions of physics at the nuclear level. In this talk we will discuss one of these methods applied to pion photoproduction,$p+\gamma \rightarrow p + \pi^0$. The method of interest is Chiral Perturbation Theory (ChPT) which has proven itself to be capable of describing many nuclear phenomena. We will discuss how it is implemented here and how it includes other aspects of the physics involved in this reaction.  Speaker: Mr. Lloyd Cawthorne (The University of Manchester) Material: • 16:15 First measurements of ﬁnal state neutron polarisation in deuterium photodisintegration 15' The Edinburgh Hadron Physics group are leading a new large acceptance measurement of the transferred and induced polarisations of ﬁnal state nucleons following deuterium photodisintegration. The measurements will provide the ﬁrst large acceptance determination of the polarisation of ﬁnal state neutrons, providing unique data to constrain the modelling of the photodisintegration process. Additionally the new data will enable investigation of the anomalous resonant structure of width Γ ≈ 70 MeV observed around the centre-of-mass energy (√s) 2380 MeV reported in recent precision experiments using nucleon beams. In this talk I will outline the future plans and discuss the latest preliminary results from the analysis of deuterium photodisintegration data using the Crystal Ball at MAMI. The ﬁnal state neutron polarisation will be determined using our recently developed polarimeter. The experiment will be an important next step in elucidating the physical nature of the narrow resonant state and will establish whether the ﬁnal state neutron shows a high degree of polarisation in the region of the resonance, as has been indicated for the the ﬁnal state proton.  Speaker: Mr. Stephen Kay (University of Edinburgh) Material: • 16:30 Exploring nuclear dynamics with Sky3d 15' Our recently-published code time-depdendent density functional theory code [1] allows a sophisticated range of nuclear dynamical processes to be investigated in a framework based on a microscopic framework in which single-particle structure and collective motion interplay on the same footing. We will present results showing a selection of nuclear processes that can be calculated; fusion, fission, giant (& pygmy) resonances, deep-inelastic collisions, and look at the effect of the physics input to the code in terms of the effective interaction input -- of the Skyrme type. Thanks to the time-dependence in the calculations, most results are presented in the form of movies, turning the zeptosecond processes into ultra slow-motion (around 24 orders of magnitude) animations. [1] J. A. Maruhn, P.-G. Reinhard, P. D. Stevenson and A. S. Umar, Comput. Phys. Commun. 185, 2195 (2014)  Speaker: Dr. Paul Stevenson (University of Surrey) • 16:45 Isovector & pairing properties of the Gogny interaction 15' Pairing in nuclear matter has observable implications for the dynamics of neutron stars [1]. The Gogny force is a finite-range phenomenological interaction that has been widely used to study nuclei [2]. We analyse the isovector properties of this phenomenological force and study the corresponding equations of state of neutron stars [3]. Mass-radius relationships calculated with the Gogny interactions are presented. Neutron star matter pairing gaps generated with the Gogny interaction are presented for various partial waves. The implications of the calculated gaps are explored in the context of neutron star cooling [4] with a consistent set of equations of state and pairing gaps. [1] Dean, D. J., and Morten Hjorth-Jensen. "Pairing in nuclear systems: from neutron stars to finite nuclei." Reviews of Modern Physics 75.2 (2003): 607 [2] Bender, Michael, Paul-Henri Heenen, and Paul-Gerhard Reinhard. "Self-consistent mean-field models for nuclear structure." Reviews of Modern Physics 75.1 (2003): 121. [3] Sellahewa, Roshan, and Arnau Rios. "Isovector properties of the Gogny interaction." Physical Review C 90.5 (2014): 054327. [4] Page, Dany, et al. "Rapid cooling of the neutron star in Cassiopeia A triggered by neutron superfluidity in dense matter." Physical Review Letters 106.8 (2011): 081101.  Speaker: Mr. Rosh Sellahewa (University of Surrey) Material: Slides • 16:00 - 17:00 PPAP Parallel: Detectors I  Convener: Prof. Long Kenneth (Imperial College London/STFC), Ms. Summer Blot (Univ Manchester) Location: Schuster ( 54-0-62 - Blackett Lecture Theatre ) • 16:00 TORCH 15' TORCH is an innovative Cherenkov based Time-of-Flight system that has been proposed for the LHCb upgrade to provide particle identification in the low to intermediate momentum regime, up to 10 GeV/c. With a beam test scheduled for the beginning of summer, an overview will be given of the prototype currently under construction, and its expected performance through detailed simulation studies. The expectations and the goals of this ambitious programme will be shown, supported by the latest results from lab measurements on the photodetectors under development for TORCH.  Speaker: Mr. Maarten van Dijk (University of Bristol) Material: • 16:30 MICE The Muon Ionisation Cooling Experiment 15' The Muon Ionisation Cooling experiment (MICE) has been designed to demonstrate the reduction of the phase-space volume (cooling) occupied by a muon beam using the ionization-cooling technique. This demonstration will be an important step in establishing the feasibility of muon accelerators for particle physics. The emittance of the beam will be measured before and after the cooling cell using a solenoidal spectrometer. Each spectrometer will be instrumented with a high-precision scintillating-fibre tracking detector (tracker). The trackers will be emersed in a uniform magnetic field of 4T and will measure the normalised emittance reduction with a precision of 0.1%. MICE is under development at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (UK) and data taking is due to start this year. The design, hardware, status and future of the MICE experiment are described here.  Speaker: Dr. Melissa uchida (Imperial college) Material: • 16:45 Characterisation of the Scintillator Bars used in the MICE EMR Detector. 15' The Muon Ionisation Cooling Experiment (MICE) is a proof of concept experiment designed to demonstrate ionisation cooling, which can be used in future neutrino factories or muon colliders. The Electron-Muon Ranger (EMR) detector is situated at the end of the MICE beamline, and was designed to discriminate between electrons and muons in the MICE beam line. The EMR detector is comprised of 48 planes, each of 59 triangular scintillator bars arranged to provide an X-Y geometry, with PMT's providing charge readout on either end of the bar. Due to the shape of the scintillator, the charge collected by the PMT is highly dependant on the location of interaction between an incident particle and the bar itself. The talk will present work to characterise and analyse this effect, in both a lab environment and using data collected in the EMR commissioning run of 2013.  Speaker: Mr. Rhys Gardener (Brunel University) Material: • 16:00 - 17:15 PPAP Parallel: Electroweak II/Top Quarks  Convener: Dr. Victoria Martin (Edinburgh), Mr. Shanzhen Chen (University of Manchester) Location: Schuster ( 54-0-64 - Moseley Lecture Theatre ) • 16:00 Measurement of the angular distribution of muon pairs with masses between 30 and 500 GeV in 10.4 fb−1 of p\bar{p} collisions 15' We present a measurement of the distribution of the variable ϕ∗η for muon pairs with masses between 30 and 500 GeV, using the complete Run II data set collected by the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron proton-antiproton collider. This corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 10.4 fb−1 at s√ = 1.96 TeV. The data are corrected for detector effects and presented in bins of dimuon rapidity and mass. The variable ϕ∗η probes the same physical effects as the Z/γ∗ boson transverse momentum, but is less susceptible to the effects of experimental resolution and efficiency. These are the first measurements at any collider of the ϕ∗η distributions for dilepton masses away from the Z→ℓ+ℓ− boson mass peak. The data are compared to QCD predictions based on the resummation of multiple soft gluons.  Speaker: Mr. Xingguo Li (Ph.D) Material: • 16:15 Spin correlation in top-antitop pairs at ATLAS at 8 TeV: established results and ongoing work. 15' The LHC produces a great number of top-antitop quark pairs, and as such provides an excellent opportunity to investigate the properties of the top quark. One such property is the degree of correlation of the spin directions of the top and its corresponding antitop partner. I will present an overview of the latest spin correlation results from the ATLAS detector at a centre of mass energy of 8 TeV, as well as highlighting the ongoing work being conducted in order to gain further insight into this area. This will include methods of unfolding the measured angular distributions, as well as initial investigations as to how spin correlation varies as a function of the top-antitop invariant mass.  Speaker: Mr. Mark Levy (University of Birmingham) Material: • 16:30 Measurement of the top pair plus photon production cross-section in the dilepton channel at 8 TeV with the CMS detector 15' We present the latest measurement for the production cross-section of top quark pairs, plus a radiated photon, in pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV, with the CMS detector at the LHC. This study uses data from the 2012 run, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of L_int = 19.7 fb^{−1}. The measurement is performed in the dilepton channels.  Speaker: Mr. Nik Berry (Brunel University) Material: • 16:45 Direct top-quark width measurement in the ttbar -> lepton + Jets channel 15' The aim of this analysis is to obtain a measurement of the top-quark width in the ttbar -> lepton + jets channel using ATLAS full data set corresponding to proton-proton collisions with center of mass energy of 8 TeV and total integrated luminosity equal 20.3 fb^-1. The analysis includes the two sub-channels: electron + jets and muon + jets. The reconstructed top-quark mass is obtained using per-event chi^2 minimisation. Official ATLAS Monte Carlo, (MC) ttbar and backgrounds samples have been used to perform simulated experiments to extract the statistical uncertainty and calculate the different contributions to the systematic uncertainty. Templates are generated assuming an underlying truth top mass distribution with relativistic Breit-Wigner shape, as modelled in the MC generator. Event selection control plots have been made comparing Data and MC for the different variables in the control regions.  Speaker: Mr. Javier Alberto Murillo Quijada (University of Birmimgham) Material: • 17:00 Search for the Standard Model ttH production with H->bbbar in dilepton channel 15' A search for the Standard Model Higgs boson produced in association with top quark pair and decaying into bbbar is presented. The analysis uses 20.3 fb-1 of pp collision data at √s = 8 TeV, collected with the ATLAS at LHC during 2012. The search focuses on events with final states containing 2 leptons from the decay of the ttbar system. In order to improve the sensitivity of the search, events are categorised according to the number of reconstructed jets and b-tagged jets. Neural networks are constructed in the signal enriched categories to discriminate between signal and background. No significant excess of events above the background expectation is found and an observed (expected) 95% confidence level limit of 6.7 (4.1) times the Standard Model cross section is obtained. By performing a fit with an arbitrary signal strength, the ratio of the measured signal strength to the Standard Model expectation for the Higgs boson mass of 125 GeV is found to be µ = 2.8 ± 2.0. Combining the result with the search in events with one lepton in the final states, the observed (expected) 95% confidence level limit is measured to be 3.4 (2.2), with µ = 1.5 ± 1.1.  Speaker: Mr. Yang Qin (The University of Manchester) Material: • 16:00 - 17:15 PPAP Parallel: SUSY  Convener: Andrew Pilkington (Manchester), Mr. Yaadav BHAURUTH (University of Manchester) Location: Schuster ( 54-0-29 - Rutherford Lecture Theatre ) • 16:00 Search for Scalar-Charm Pair Production in pp Collisions at √s = 8 TeV with the ATLAS Detector 15' A search for pair production of scalar charm quarks has been performed using 20 fb-1 of data collected by the ATLAS experiment in 8 TeV proton-proton collisions at the LHC. An innovative charm tagging algorithm was used to identify jets produced by the hadronisation of a charm quark. Results for this first dedicated search for scalar charm quarks, obtained with the final state of two identified charm jets and missing transverse momentum, are presented.  Speaker: Mr. William Kalderon (University of Oxford) Material: • 16:15 Searches for signatures of supersymmetry with the αT variable at CMS 15' The increased centre of mass energy$\sqrt{s} = 13$TeV of the LHC in Run 2 will yield a large increase in the production cross section of massive objects, presenting the prospect for the early observation of supersymmetry (SUSY) at the LHC. The$\alpha_{\rm T}$analysis, an inclusive fully-hadronic search for signatures of SUSY at CMS, has set stringent limits on sparticle production at the LHC with an integrated luminosity of 19.6 fb$^{-1}$seeks to exploit the energies of Run 2 to probe previously unexplored regions of parameter space. An overview of the$\alpha_{\rm T}$analysis is presented including current exclusions interpreted through a range of simplified models. Additionally, analysis developments for Run 2 are described including the extension of acceptance to additional signatures of new physics and early discovery potential.  Speaker: Mr. Mark David John Baber (Imperial College Sci., Tech. & Med. (GB)) Material: • 16:30 8 TeV Large Extra Dimension Searches at ATLAS 15' A search is conducted for large extra dimensions with dielectron final states. The full LHC 2012 proton-proton collision dataset at √s = 8 TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector is used, corresponding to 20 fb−1. The invariant mass spectrum is used as a discriminating variable. Lower limits are set on the string scale MS for large extra spatial dimensions.  Speaker: Mr. Graham Savage (Royal Holloway, Universtiy of London) Material: • 16:45 Electroweak SUSY searches in Compressed SUSY Scenarios using the 3-Lepton+ETmiss signature 15' Final states with three well isolated leptons and large ETmiss are well motivated in the search for supersymmetry. Compressed supersymmetric spectra, where the mass difference between the chargino or second lightest neutralino and the lightest supersymmetric particle is relatively small (10-50 GeV), is an ongoing objective at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Compressed scenarios are explored by selecting 3-lepton events with an additional relatively hard initial-state radiation (ISR) jet and sizeable missing transverse energy. This permits the use of softer leptons in the analysis, which is experimentally challenging both for triggering and the particle reconstruction. The 3-lepton and ISR selection is explored here using Run-1 data delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector.  Speaker: Mr. Yusufu Shehu (University of Sussex) Material: • 17:00 Exotic diboson resonances in ATLAS with leptonic final states 15' This talk presents a search for narrow resonances in diboson production with the llqq final state using 20fb-1 of pp data collected at sqrt(s)=8TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Limits are derived for both Kaluza-Klein gravitons predicted by the Randall-Sundrum model and for the Extended Gauge Model W’ production. Diboson resonance searches performed with the lvqq and lvll final states are also discussed as well as the status of the combination of the three channels.  Speaker: Mr. Stephen Marsden (The University of Manchester) Material: • 16:00 - 17:15 PPAP Parallel: Neutrino Detectors II  Convener: Dr. Timothy Gershon (University of Warwick), Mr. Kevin Maguire (University of Manchester) Location: Schuster ( 54-0-28 - Bragg Lecture Theatre ) • 16:00 Re-examining the Rayleigh scattering length of liquid argon 15' Large liquid argon detectors have become widely used in low background experiments, including dark matter and neutrino research. Using previously published data on the index of refraction of liquid argon and the Sellmeier equation, we have extrapolated the index of refraction at the scintillation wavelength and used this to re-calculate the Rayleigh scattering length. This method results in a Rayleigh scattering length for liquid argon at 128 nm of 55 ± 5 cm, a more than 30% difference from the previously calculated value of 90 cm. An experimental method for measuring the Rayleigh scattering length will also be discussed.  Speaker: Ms. Emily Grace (Royal Holloway University of London) Material: • 16:15 Measurement of the Rayleigh Scattering length at SNO+ 15' Located in the Creighton Mine in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, SNO+ is a multi-purpose neutrino detector built to investigate double beta decays as well as solar neutrino oscillations. In order to ensure the role of SNO+ in adding significant contributions to modern neutrino physics, the detector's optical properties need to be well understood. Scattering effects in the detector medium will delay the arrival of photons at the PMTs. It is important to understand these effects well in order to accurately reconstruct events and separate the neutrino signals from backgrounds. The scattering module (SMELLIE), as presented by Krishanu Majumdar, is used to monitor the scattering properties of the detector. An outline of the analysis strategy using Monte Carlo simulations of a water-filled detector is given, presenting a cut based approach on separating scattered photons produced by the scattering module from other optical interactions the photons may undergo.  Speaker: Stefanie Langrock (QMUL) Material: • 16:30 Instrumental Backgrounds: From SNO to SNO+ 15' The SNO+ experiment, like its predecessor SNO, will require the removal of instrumental background for effective analysis. These instrumental backgrounds are caused by static discharge and electronic pickup, amongst other effects. The SNO experiment developed a series of cuts to exclude these events from the data. As the detector interaction medium has changed from D2O, for SNO, to liquid scintillator, for SNO+, the effectiveness of these cuts at removing background whilst accepting signal will change. This presentation details work done to measure the signal that would be removed in SNO+ by using cuts created for SNO, new cuts in development, and simulations of instrumental background events in scintillator.  Speaker: Mr. John Walker (University of Liverpool) Material: • 16:45 The NA62 2014 Commissioning Run 15' The NA62 experiment at CERN SPS aims to collect O(10^13) kaon decays by 2018 in order to provide a 10% precision measurement of the branching ratio the ultra-rare kaon decay, K^+ -> pi^+ nu nu, which is predicted by the standard model to be of the order 10^-10. In November 2014 there was a two month commissioning run of the NA62 detector. This talk will focus on analysis of data taken during the commissioning run ahead of data taking later in 2015.  Speaker: Mr. Liam Fulton (Liverpool University) Material: • 17:00 Kaon Identification at NA62 15' The NA62 experiment at the CERN SPS aims to measure the branching ratio of the very rare kaon decay K+→π+νν, collecting about 100 SM events with a 10% background in 2 years of data taking. An upgraded gas Cherenkov detector, KTAG, will be used to positively identify kaons in the almost monochromatic beam, to reduce the background from scattered beam pions. Its principle of operation, and expected performance are described along with preliminary results from a pilot run.  Speaker: Mr. Francis Newson (University of Birmingham) Material: • 17:15 - 19:15 Poster and sponsor session  Convener: Dr. Marco Gersabeck (University of Manchester), Dr. Alick Deacon (University of Manchester) • 17:15 Analysis and Manufacture of 3D Diamond Detectors 5' Tracking detectors at the LHC are subjected to high levels of radiation, and this radiation damage affects the properties of the chosen semiconductor. Silicon has been used for the detector material, but silicon detectors become heavily damaged and must be replaced regularly. With the luminosity upgrades planned for the LHC, a new detector material is required to withstand high particle fluences. A viable candidate - a 3D diamond detector - has been tested with a photon beam (at Diamond Light Source, Oxford) and with a proton beam (at Rudjer Boskovic Institute, Zagreb), showing minimal charge sharing. Preliminary results on the manufacturing of the 3D columns through the use of a femtosecond laser are presented, and the manufacturing process is being investigated to aid in the production of further 3D diamond detectors.  Speaker: Mr. Steven Murphy (University of Manchester) • 17:15 Lifetimes and Inferred Quadrupole Deformations of the Yrast I π =2 + States in Heavy Hf Isotopes. 5' Excited states in even-even Hf nuclei were populated following (a) the beta decay of residues produced in the fusion evaporation reactions 171Yb(6Li,3n)174Ta and 172Yb(7Li, 3n)176Ta and (b) following the Coulomb excitation of 180Hf with 16O ions. Gamma rays depopulating excited states in the nuclei of interest were studied using the ROSPHERE combined gamma-ray array comprising 8 high-purity Germanium (HPGe) detectors and 11 Cerium-doped Lanthanum tri-Bromide (LaBr3:(Ce)) scintillators, based at the IFIN-HH laboratory in Romania. The data were recorded using a master-gate event trigger condition requiring that at least 2 LaBr3:(Ce) and 1 HPGe coincidences were detected for each event. The lifetimes of excited states in the nanosecond temporal regime have been extracted using fits to both single exponential decay curves and fitted convolutions which include the prompt timing response of the detection system, using the code NANOFIT [1]. The resulting lifetimes for the first I=2+ states in 174,176,180Hf are consistent with the previously reported literature values [2-7]. Transition quadrupole moments and associated deformation parameters were also extracted from these B(E2) values. An overview of the experimental analysis, together with the measured state half-lives and extracted B(E2) values will be presented. References: [1] http://www.wheldon.talktalk.net/nanofit/index.html [2] M.S.Basunia. Nuclear Data Sheets 107,791 (2006). [3] E.Browne and H.Junde. Nuclear Data Sheets 87, 15(1999). [4] E.Browne. Nuclear Data Sheets 52, 127 (1987). [5] S.C.Wu et al. Nuclear Data Sheets 100, 483 (2003). [7] S.Raman et al. Atomic Data & Nucl. Data Tables 78,128 (2001).  Speaker: Mr. Terver Daniel (University of Surrey, Guildford) • 17:20 Development of 3D Diamond Detectors 5' As the LHC enters into the high luminosity domain, increasingly high requirements will be put on the radiation hardness of the detectors used, particularly the semiconductor tracking detectors closest to interaction points. There are two approaches that can increase the radiation hardness of these detectors: the use of a more radiation resistant geometry, such as that employed in 3D detectors; increasing the radiation hardness as the electrodes are moved closer together. The other approach is to use a more radiation resistant material, such as diamond. The aim of this project is to combine these two approaches by producing diamond detectors with graphitic electrodes drilled into the diamond bulk, thus producing detectors that are more radiation resistant than either of the two approaches can achieve individually.  Speaker: Mr. Giulio Forcolin (University of Manchester) • 17:20 Vector meson production in ultra-peripheral collisions at ALICE 5' Ultra-peripheral production of vector mesons investigates those collisions where the impact parameter is larger than the sum of the radii of the two projectiles, implying that electromagnetic processes become dominant. The ALICE Experiment has measured such interactions, in both PbPb and pPb collisions. The current results, and plans for LHC Run 2, will be described. Bibliography: B. Abelev et al., The ALICE Collaboration, Phys. Lett. B718 (2013) 1273; E. Abbas et al., The ALICE Collaboration, Eur. Phys. J. C73 (2013) 73; B. Abelev et al., The ALICE Collaboration, Phys. Rev. Lett. 113 (2014) 232504  Speaker: Katie Graham (University of Birmingham) • 17:25 Searches for New Physics with Displaced Vertices at ATLAS 5' Several extensions to the Standard Model, including variants of Supersymmetry, predict the production of long-lived massive particles. These particles could decay with a characteristic Displaced Vertex (DV) signature in the ATLAS tracking detector. Searches for massive long-lived particles are an important part of the ATLAS program of searches for new physics. A poster presenting the new Run 1 results on this search will be presented.  Speaker: Ms. Giovanna Cottin (University of Cambridge) • 17:25 Recent work on the scintillator detectors coupled to silicon photomultipliers 5' Advantages of silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) sensors are very attractive. These include, good performance in the environments where magnetic fields are present, portability due to their small size and low bias voltage required and the cost effectiveness. In our nuclear applications laboratory, we worked on a project of building hygroscopic crystal + SiPM detector assemblies within a dry box. In this poster presentation, we would like to present this process and the tests performed, using gamma ray sources and analogue as well as digital electronics. We will also discuss the status of the envisioned technological advances relevant to the nuclear physics European projects such as the PARIS, HIE-ISOLDE and FAIR. The relevance to the medical applications will also be briefly presented.  Speaker: Dr. S Nara Singh Bondili (University of York) Material: • 17:30 Effect of cross-section models on the validity of sterile neutrino mixing limits 5' Charged-Current Quasi-Elastic (CCQE) neutrino scattering is a signal channel for sterile neutrino oscillation experiments. Recent cross-section measurements have made it clear that the current understanding of this channel in the few-GeV region is incomplete, and several sophisticated theoretical models have been proposed to tackle the issue. Since a sterile disappearance fit relies on an initial event rate prediction the final mixing limits are likely to be strongly correlated with the cross-section priors chosen. In this analysis we performed a series of sterile disappearance fits by changing the CCQE model prior in each fit. Cross-section predictions with a sterile induced bias folded in were fitted to published MINERvA data to produce mixing limits within a sterile mixing parameter space. The differences between these limits highlight that the current uncertainty surrounding CCQE cross-sections is a serious problem for experiments seeking to produce sterile neutrino limits.  Speaker: Mr. Patrick Stowell (University of Sheffield) • 17:30 The SPEDE spectrometer 5' SPEDE is a novel electron spectrometer that will be coupled with the MINIBALL germanium array at HIE-ISOLDE, to do simultaneous in-beam electron-gamma spectroscopy. On this poster I will show some of the first results of commissioning and the details of this work.  Speaker: Mr. George O'Neill (University of Liverpool) • 17:35 Searches for supersymmetry with the ATLAS detector in events with a single top quark and missing energy 5' Supersymmetry offers an elegant solution to the naturalness problem of the Higgs mass scale by postulating the existence of partners of the Standard Model particles with spin differing by one half. This poster presents a search for pair production of the partners of the top and bottom quark, that decay in a final state containing a top quark, a b quark and invisible particles. The search, which concentrates on topologies containing one lepton, has been performed using the full statistics of 2012 LHC proton-proton collisions at$\sqrt{s} = 8$TeV collected by the ATLAS detector. After outlining the startegy for the selection optimization and background estimation, the search results will be presented, and their implications on simplified MSSM models discussed.  Speaker: Giuseppe Lerner (University of Sussex) • 17:35 Studying the Exotic Neutron-Deficient Isotope 214Fr, using the CRIS technique at CERN-ISOLDE. 5' The CRIS (Collinear Resonance Ionisation Spectroscopy) setup at the ISOLDE facility in CERN is a novel experiment that is used to detect and examine the ground-state properties of exotic nuclei, in relatively background-free environments. Normally, isobaric and isomeric impurities interfere with the decay studies of such exotic nuclei beams. In the CRIS technique however, laser radiation is used to excite a valence electron of the isotope of interest, step-by-step, until it is brought beyond the ionisation threshold. This ionised beam is then subsequently deflected from the remaining contaminants and towards a decay spectroscopy station (DSS), allowing the detection of exotic nuclei (with yields of <100 ions/second) free from contaminants [1]. The DSS comprises of a rotatable wheel-implantation system surrounded by in-vacuum silicon detectors and a triad of germanium detectors [2], allowing for alpha-decay and gamma-ray spectroscopy studies to be conducted. By examining the hyperfine structures of certain isotopes in conjunction with their characteristic decay, ground-state properties such as the nuclear spin, electric quadrupole and magnetic dipole moments and the change in the mean square charge radii can be deduced. An ongoing research programme is investigating neutron-deficient francium isotopes at the CRIS setup [1, 3, 4]; so far, the very exotic Fr isotopes have been reached (e.g. 202Fr) and the first measurements of 204m2Fr decay branching ratios have been deduced. In this poster, the synergy between laser and decay spectroscopy will be presented, leading to the first studies on the neutron-deficient francium isotope 214Fr being presented. With a half-life of only 5ms, this represents the shortest-lived isotope that has been studied online with laser spectroscopy. [1] K. T. Flanagan et al., Collinear Resonance Ionisation Spectroscopy of Neutron-Deficient Francium Isotopes, Phys. Rev Letts. 111, 212501, (2013). [2] M. M. Rajabali et al., A dedicated decay-spectroscopy station for the collinear resonance ionization experiment at ISOLDE, Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res., Sect. A 707, 35 (2013). [3] K. M. Lynch et al., Decay-Assisted Laser Spectroscopy of Neutron-Deficient Francium, Phys. Rev. X. 4, 010055 (2014). [4] I. Budinčević et al., Laser Spectroscopy of Francium Isotopes at the Borders of the Region of Reflection Asymmetry, Phys. Lett. C 90, 014317 (2014).  Speaker: Mr. Gregory Farooq-Smith (University of Manchester) • 17:40 The matrix element method and its application to the search for dilepton ttH -> bb production 5' The matrix element method is a computationally complex, but powerful, analysis technique combining theory and experimental data to calculate the likelihood to generate an event with given kinematics by a specific process. In the ATLAS analysis, this technique has been successfully applied to the single lepton channel of the ttH analysis. An explanation of this technique along with work currently on-going in the dilepton channel will be presented alongside the latest approved results from the search.  Speaker: Mr. Ian Connelly (Royal Holloway, University of London) • 17:40 Nuclear charge radii of 62-80Zn measured by collinear laser spectroscopy 5' As part of the programme of measurements on nuclear ground state properties in the nickel region, the isotopes shifts and hyperfine structures of the zinc (Z=30) isotopes have been measured at the ISOLDE facility, CERN. Ion beams of zinc isotopes were produced by the RILIS laser ion source and delivered to the ISCOOL ion beam cooler. The ions were bunched, re-accelerated and neutralized by passage through a charge-exchange cell on the COLLAPS beam line. Laser resonance fluorescence was observed on the 481 nm transition from the 4s4p 3P2 metastable state (32890.352 cm-1) to the 4s5s 3S1 (53672.28 cm-1) state. The measurements covered the isotopes from 62Zn up to 80Zn, and isomers in in 69,71,73,75,77,79Zn The poster will present full details of the experimental apparatus. A preliminary analysis of the isotopes shifts will be given, with deduced nuclear charge radii from N=32 to the shell closure at N=50. These will be compared with charge radii for the neighbouring isotope chains of Cu (Z=29) and Ga (Z=31).  Speaker: Mr. liang xie (the University of Manchester) • 17:45 CASCADE, searching for dark photons 5' Fundamental new physics can lead to the existence of Weakly Interacting Sub-eV Particles(WISPs) which cannot be investigated fully with conventional accelerator facilities. Through the use of small-scale, dedicated experiments the parameter space of WISPs such as the Hidden Sector Photon(HSP) can be explored. CASCADE is a microwave light shining through a wall experiment which is searching for HSPs in the 10^-6 eV to 10^-5 eV mass range. Here we will present the preliminary results from the initial room-temperature data and comment on the prospects for future cryogenic data.  Speaker: Mr. Nathan Woollett (Lancaster University) • 17:45 The STEFF Detector at n_TOF - Prompt Gamma-Ray Emissions from U-235 5' The SpecTrometer for Exotic Fission Fragments (STEFF) is a system of detectors designed to measure properties of the nuclear fission process; including fission fragment mass & energies alongside gamma ray energies and their multiplicities. The system is currently undergoing modification for a future experiment to measure prompt gamma-ray emission from 235U fission, an experiment which will be performed at the neutron time-of-flight facility, n_TOF. This experiment will measure neutron-induced fission with neutron energies ranging from the thermal region to approximately 1 keV. Using the Monte Carlo package FLUKA, simulation work has been performed to investigate the background gamma-ray levels present in the n_TOF experimental area and to discern the optimal configuration of STEFF to maximise the signal-background ratio. ​  Speaker: Mr. James Ryan (The University of Manchester) • 17:50 Performance of the Current Iteration of the MICE Target 5' The Muon Ionization Cooling Experiment aims to reduce the emittance, related to the occupied phase space volume, of a muon beam. The muon beam starts off as pions made by dipping a titanium target into the proton beam of the ISIS synchrotron. However, the MICE target is only allowed to dip into one particle bunch or “spill” per second out of the 50 that ISIS accelerates per second. The driving mechanism of the target is a linear motor consisting of wire coils and permanent magnets, the titanium shaft is held in place by two simple bearings which are described. Careful monitoring of the target is required to ensure that data taking periods are not disrupted by target faults. The performance of the current iteration of targets is also reviewed.  Speaker: Mr. Joe Langlands (University of Sheffield) • 17:50 Carbon-12 production in stellar evolution 5' 12C is produced in massive stars via the triple-alpha process. The precise evaluation of the rate of this reaction is required to be able to understand the subsequent stages in the stellar nucleosynthesis and the elemental abundances in the universe. The triple-alpha process occurs through a resonance in the 12C nucleus, famously known as the Hoyle-state. Theoretically, the Hoyle state, which can be thought of as a cluster of three alpha particles, should have the first rotational excitation state with spin-parity 2+ and the energy 9-11 MeV above the ground state of 12C. Knowledge of this state is required to understand the debated structure of the 12C nucleus in the Hoyle state. Also, at higher temperatures in stars, the reaction rate of the triple-alpha process has a large dependency on the energy level of this second excited 2+ state. In the experiment, the states of interest were populated by the beta decay of 12N to 12C which subsequently breaks into three alpha particles. The coincident detection of the decay beta-particle with all three alpha particles from the subsequent breakup will provide the information on the angular correlation in the decay and breakup, which will be used to establish the spin-parity of the state. The experiment was performed at IGISOL facility at JYFL, Jyväskylä, Finland. The alpha particles from the breakup were detected using a cubic array of thin Double-Sided Silicon Strip Detectors (DSSSDs), surrounding the breakup site. Thick Silicon detectors were used to detect the beta particles from the decay.  Speaker: Ms. Ruchi Garg (Department of Physics, University of York, Heslington, YO10 5DD) • 17:55 Higgs Boson to tau tau decays in ATLAS run-1 and run-2 5' From the run-I data, there is strong evidence for the coupling of the recently discovered Higgs Boson to tau leptons. Changes are taking place in the trigger and tau identification in the lead up to run-II data taking. This poster presentation will give a brief overview of the run-I result and look forward to the changes in run-II.  Speaker: Mr. Mark Pickering (University of Oxford) • 17:55 The Electromagnetic Mass Analyser EMMA. A new recoil spectrometer for nuclear physics research being developed at TRIUMF, Vancouver. 5' EMMA (Electromagnetic Mass Analyser) is a recoil mass spectrometer currently being assembled within the ISAC-II high energy experimental hall at TRIUMF, Vancouver. The design of EMMA has been optimised for both efficiency and selectivity, possessing large acceptances in angle, mass, and energy without sacrificing the required beam suppression and mass resolving power. Accurate measurements of position, energy loss, residual energy, and time of flight will allow EMMA to uniquely identify transmitted recoils. Recoils will be accepted within a large range of m/q (+/- 4%) and energy (+/-20%), which together with a large angular acceptance of 20msr would result in high detection efficiencies approaching 50% for the recoil nuclei of many fusion-evaporation and radiative capture reactions. These capabilities of large acceptance, beam rejection at 0°, and high selectivity are likely to make EMMA, and an instrument of exceptional quality for nuclear physics research. Though ideally suited for fusion evaporation reactions, EMMA is also well suited for measuring projectile-like recoils from transfer reactions in inverse kinematics, with excellent geometric efficiency approaching unity for strongly forward focussed transfer reactions such as (d,p), (d,t) and (p, 3He). EMMA’s capabilities will be further augmented by the use of particle and gamma-ray detector arrays at the target position for recoil-particle-gamma coincidence measurements. Experimental set-ups involving EMMA would therefore offer new insight into interesting reaction channels that would otherwise be too weak to observe. In summary, this presentation aims to give an overview on the current status of EMMA, as well as an outlook of progress for the near future and expected capabilities.  Speaker: Mr. Matthew Williams (University of York) • 18:00 T2K ND280 Detector - ECal Channel Mis-mapping 5' The Tokai to Kamioka (T2K) experiment in Japan is designed to investigate properties of neutrinos. A beam of muon neutrinos is produced at the J-PARC facility in Tokai and the composition, energy spectrum and neutrino interaction cross section is measured 280m downstream of the production point at the near detector (ND280). This is measured again after 295 km at the SuperKamiokande (large ultra pure water Cherenkov) detector. By comparing these two measurements, oscillation parameters can be obtained. To minimise systematic errors associated with measurements of the neutrino beam, it is important that the near detector is able to reconstruct events accurately. In 2013, a comprehensive and systematic study of the electronic mapping to specific physical components within the ND280 electromagnetic calorimeter (ECal) was begun. Several cases where the electronic channel was connected during construction with the wrong physical detector component (MPPC) were identified. Such a mismapping results in the reconstruction of a particle's path and energy deposition in the ECal to be unreliable. In this work, the mismapped channels in the ECal have been identified and the issue will be resolved at software level. The poster will discuss the ND280 Detector, with specific focus on its electromagnetic calorimeter modules and current work to improve their reconstruction efficiency.  Speaker: Mr. Dave Shaw (Lancaster University) • 18:00 Review of the 18F+p reactions and their impact on γ-ray spectroscopy for nova explosions 5' 18F is an unstable nuclei produced via the H-CNO cycle in novae. Its half-life of 110 minutes makes it one of the strongest observable source of gamma rays during the first few hours of the explosion. Detection of this radiation would provide a direct test of current hydrodynamic models, which are currently underestimating global properties such as the total ejected mass. Abundance estimates of 18F are therefore important for determining the maximum distance gamma-ray spectroscopy remains a viable technique for observation of novae. 18F is destroyed by proton capture through unbound states in 19Ne. These reactions contribute the most uncertainty in abundance calculations of 18F. Due to the presence of a wide 3/2+ resonance at 665 keV above the proton threshold in the 18F+p channel, interference effects between other 3/2+ states create a large cross section uncertainty in the energy window of interest. Recent measurements of states above and below the threshold however have questioned several 3/2+ spin parity assignments and thus their interference contribution. The subject of this work has been to re-evaluate the remaining uncertainty in the Gamow window, highlighting states for further measurement in future experiments. R-matrix calculations have been performed using the Azure2 code for both the alpha and gamma decay channels, giving new estimates for cross sections and reaction rates. The effects of a postulated broad resonance at -410 keV have also been investigated. The results of these calculations and the changes to the expected reaction rate for 18F+p and its subsequent decay channels will be presented along with implications for future studies of 19Ne.  Speaker: Mr. Jos Riley (University of York) • 18:05 Understanding the Neutron Background in DRIFT 5' The existence of Dark Matter is supported by astronomical and cosmological data. Gravitational effects suggest that galaxies are surrounded by dark matter halos. A favoured candidate is the WIMP (Weakly Interacting Massive Particle) with a mass in the range 10-100 GeV. The DRIFT detector is searching for a directional signal of WIMP-nuclear collisions. This signal is expected to be in the low energy region (below 100 keV), at a very small rate (in the order of few interactions per year). In particular, elastic scattering of neutrons can produce a single nuclear recoil and are therefore almost undistinguishable from WIMPs interaction. Understanding the neutron background signal is a key objective for direct detection to remain a viable method.  Speaker: Mr. frederic mouton (University of Sheffield) • 18:05 Identification of Excited States in 70Kr 5' The A=60-80 mass region of the nuclear chart on the proton-rich side of the N=Z line is of great interest to nuclear structure physicists. The mass region is expected to yield different shapes within neighbouring nuclei. This feature is a consequence of large shell gaps that exist for both prolate and oblate shapes for N=Z=34, 36, 38. The presence of different shapes for nuclei belonging to an isobaric triplet could have interesting implications for Coulomb/mirror and triplet energy differences. For example, the A=70 N=Z triplet in particular is intriguing due to the observed negative CED in comparison to the positive CED observed in the A=66, A=74 and A=78 triplets [1]. The next step is to examine the TED of the A=70 triplet and see if this differs from the expected negative trend of the neighbouring triplets. The origin of the negative CED between the N=Z and N=Z+2 neighbours 70Br/70Se remains a mystery, despite theoretical attempts to explain this [2]. To find the TED for this triplet, the excited states in 70Kr must be identified. A fusion evaporation experiment was conducted at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland in September 2014 using the recoil-beta tagging method for tagging proton-rich nuclei and identifying corresponding gamma rays from excited states [3]. This technique has already been used successfully to study low lying states in 66Se [4] and 74Sr [5]. Progress on the analysis of the data will be reported. References [1] B.S. Nara Singh et al. Coulomb shifts and shape changes in the mass 70 region. Phys. Rev. C, 75:061301(R), 2007. [2] T. Mizusaki S. Tazaki K. Kaneko, Y. Sun. Isospin nonconserving interaction in the t=1 analogue states of the mass-70 region. Phys. Rev. C, 89:031302, 2014. [3] J.Henderson et al. Enhancing the sensitivity of recoil-beta tagging. J Inst., 8:P04025, 2013. [4] P Ruotsalainen et al. Recoil-beta tagging study of the n=z nucleus 66 as. Phys. Rev. C, 88:024320, 2013. [5] J. Henderson et al. Spectroscopy on the proton drip-line: Probing the structure dependence of isospin nonconserving interactions. Phys. Rev. C, 90:51303, 2014.  Speaker: Ms. Dawn Debenham (University of York) • 18:10 QCD Multijet Background Estimation in ATLAS SUSY Searches for Run-II at the LHC 5' Supersymmetry (SUSY) is a theoretical extension to the Standard Model which solves the hierarchy problem and could include a candidate particle for dark matter (DM). QCD multijet production is a prominent background in SUSY searches at ATLAS, and better constraining this background is necessary if a signal is to be found using the newly upgraded LHC. Monte Carlo (MC) QCD multijet background estimations are not suitable as they have large statistical uncertainties and so data-driven methods such as the ‘jet smearing’ technique are pursued.  Speaker: Mr. Harry Moss (University of Sheffield) • 18:10 Testing the power of ISOLTRAP with the A=156 isobaric triplet 5' In this work the Penning trap mass measurements for isotopes of mass number A=156 are presented. These measurements were carried out at ISOLTRAP at the on-line isotope mass separator ISOLDE in CERN[1]. The ions delivered from ISOLDE were transported to the RFQ trap for cooling and bunching and then ejected to the Multi-Reflection Time-of-Flight (MR-TOF) mass separator for isobaric purification [2]. The spectrum, which was taken from the MR-TOF, shows that there were three different isobars for A=156. For identification purposes, one isobar could be selected by a Bradbury-Nielsen ion gate and transported to the Penning trap to perform mass measurements. The analysed data shows that the peaks correspond to the 140Ce16O, 140Nd16O and 156Dy. The mass of 140Nd, which was obtained for the first time with a penning trap, improves upon the result reported by the Atomic Mass Evaluation 2012(AME)[3]. For the masses of 140Ce and 156Dy, our results agree with the values obtained by AME2012 within one standard deviation. This study shows that the MR-TOF can successfully handle several different isobars at once, and can handle purity levels below 10%. References: [1] M. Mukherjee et al., ISOLTRAP: An on-line Penning trap for mass spectrometry on short-lived nuclides, Eur. Phys. J. A 35, 1-29 (2008)). [2] R.N. Wolf et al., ISOLTRAP's multi-reflection time-of-flight mass separator/spectrometer, Int. J. Mass. Spectrom. 349-350, 123-133 (2013). [3] G. Audi1 et al., The AME2012 atomic mass evaluation, CPC(HEP & NP), 36(12): 1287–1602(2012).  Speaker: Mrs. Numa Althubiti (Saudi Arabia) • 18:15 Cosmic muons at SoLid 5' The SoLid experiment aims to make a measurement of very short distance neutrino oscillations using reactor antineutrinos. Key to its sensitivity are the experiment's excellent spatial and energy resolution, combined with a highly suitable reactor source and good background rejection. The fine segmentation of the detector, and ability to resolve signals in space and time, gives SoLid the capability to track cosmic muons. In principle a source of background, these turn into a valuable calibration source if they can be cleanly identified. We present the results of our muon analyses with the recent SoLid prototype (SM1). This includes our methodology of tracking at SoLid, cosmic ray angular analyses at the reactor site, and estimates of the timing and energy resolutions.  Speaker: Mr. Daniel Saunders (Bristol University) • 18:15 A new testing and technique development apparatus for CRIS 5' The Collinear Resonance Ionization Spectroscopy (CRIS) setup is a laser spectroscopy experiment based at ISOLDE, CERN. The CRIS technique combines the high resolution of collinear laser spectroscopy with the sensitivity of resonance ionization spectroscopy to precisely measure the hyperfine structure of exotic nuclei with yields as low as 1 ion per second [1]. By studying the hyperfine structure of a particular isotope, it is possible to deduce the nuclear spin, electric quadrupole, magnetic dipole moment and change in mean square charge radii in a model-independent way. The ongoing programme of planned upgrades to the CRIS experiment has necessitated a compact ‘sister’ setup to be constructed for the testing of parts and technique development. This setup is currently based in the Photon Science Institute at the University of Manchester. This poster will present key components of the setup and its current status. [1] Flanagan, K. T. et al., (2013). Collinear Resonance Ionization Spectroscopy of Neutron-Deficient Francium Isotopes. Physical Review Letters, 111(21), 212501–4. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.111.212501  Speaker: Mr. Shane Wilkins (University of Manchester) • 18:20 Highly selective neutron identification method used in SoLid reactor anti-neutrino experiment 5' Finding a new type of neutrino would represent the most extraordinary discovery beyond the Standard Model. The SoLid experiment chases this particle by investigating neutrino oscillations close to a nuclear reactor core. Another aim of the experiment is to prove that the reactor anti-neutrinos can be used to verify that the reactor is not utilised for the production of material for nuclear weapons. The overwhelming level of background radiation poses a significant challenge in all neutrino experiments close to a reactor core. This background can easily mask the low rate of inverse beta decay reactions induced by reactor anti-neutrinos. Therefore, it is crucial to be able to distinguish reliably between the neutrons produced in inverse beta decay and signals caused by the background. This work presents a unique neutron identification method used in the SoLid experiment. The composition of scintillation material with different time constants enables the efficient use of pulse-shape analysis to discriminate electromagnetic signals. The reliability of the identification of inverse beta decay is further increased by utilising the spatial information provided by the highly segmented detector structure.  Speakers: Dr. Sakari Ihantola (University of Oxford), Dr. Nick Ryder (Merton College, University of Oxford), Dr. Antonin Vacheret (University of Oxford) • 18:20 Searching for a low mass BSM Higgs boson decaying to J/psi pairs at the LHC 5' Exploring the feasibility of searching for and discovering new low mass particles (such as a supersymmetric Higgs boson) decaying to a pair of J/psi mesons at the LHC (ATLAS/CMS) in high luminosity datasets.  Speakers: Chloe Gray (University of Manchester), Emily Graham (University of Manchester) • 18:25 Search for diboson resonance production in the llqq final state using 20.3 fb−1 of √s=8 TeV data at ATLAS 5' This poster presents a search for resonances in di-boson production in the llqq final state using 20.3 fb−1 of proton-proton collision data collected at √s=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector. No significant excess over the standard model expectation is observed. Consequently 95% confidence level upper limits are set on the cross section times branching ratio for the production of bulk Randall-Sundrum graviton and extended gauge model W' boson, leading to the exclusion of mass below 740 GeV and 1,590 GeV for the graviton and W' boson, respectively.  Speaker: Mr. Stephen Marsden (The University of Manchester) • 18:25 Observing matter antimatter asymmetries 5' The LHCb experiment at CERN, and other current experiments, are performing tests for CP violation through the comparison of Dalitz plots for particles and antiparticles. The most commonly used method to perform this comparison is a binned chi-square test, sometimes known as the S_CP test. An alternative unbinned method known as the energy test has recently been proposed and applied to LHCb data. The energy test method requires significant computing resources and has been implemented using GPUs. A comparison of the sensitivity of these two methods is performed, the binning of the S_CP method considered, and the free parameter in the energy test is optimised. It is found that the performance of these methods is similar but that the optimisation of the binning and free parameter in the methods is more important than may previously have been thought.  Speaker: Nick Bedford (University of Manchester) Material: • 18:30 LHCb Velo Upgrade 5' The upgrade of LHCb is scheduled for installation in LS2 of LHC in 2018 including the replacement of the Vertex Locator (VELO). The silicon strip sensors of the current VELO will be replaced by high resolution pixel-based sensors and microchannel cooling will be implemented in the silicon substrate with two-phase CO2 cooling. To prepare for the production of the new silicon modules it is necessary to select a suitable glue for construction. To this end shear-force tests have been conducted on three possible glues: Araldite 2011, Stycast 2850FT and 3M 9461P. Thermal studies into their conductivity have been carried out, and procedures have been put in place to measure the precision with which we can glue the modules together with a smartscope. The detector will operate at a temperature of -35C so studies were conducted to investigate the deformations caused by the thermal contraction of the module and its mechanical supports. In addition to this characterization work, the use of new pixel sensors would require updates to the DAQ firmware used for the VELO for which contributions were made to the FE and BE electronics in preparation for a test beam for the VeloPix readout chain.  Speaker: Antoni Shtipliyski (University of Manchester) • 18:30 Enhancing the student experience with the Particle Physics Research Society 5' The University of Manchester Particle Physics Research Society has recently been established, and aims to support interest and enthusiasm among undergraduates for particle physics research. The society is challenging its members by providing opportunities to participate in self-lead particle physics projects, such as the study of CP violation at the LHCb experiment, which builds on expertise gained in an undergraduate laboratory experiment and is currently underway. The society also helps its members to develop knowledge essential for further research projects by providing the opportunity to attend Particle Physics department seminars. Future plans include participation in student conferences, excursions to CERN and the STFC Daresbury Laboratory, using CERN portal data and Outreach projects.  Speakers: Ms. Aiste Norkute (School of Physics and Astronomy, the University of Manchester), Ms. Hannah Jevans (School of Physics and Astronomy, the University of Manchester), Mr. William Harvey (School of Physics and Astronomy, the University of Manchester) • Wednesday, 1 April 2015 • 09:00 - 10:20 Keynote Plenary  Convener: Prof. Alison Bruce (University of Brighton) Location: Roscoe Building ( 53-0-A - Theatre A ) • 09:00 Recent Developments in Nuclear Astrophysics 40' The goal of understanding the origin and evolution of the chemical elements in our Galaxy requires input from a wide range of disciplines including astrophysics, astronomy, theoretical and experimental nuclear physics. Nuclear physics data are crucial for modelling the structure and evolution of stars and the composition of the material ejected into the interstellar medium through stellar winds and explosions. These data include nuclear masses and decay rates, but this talk will focus on experimental determinations of thermonuclear reaction rates. A variety of nuclear physics techniques are exploited to constrain these rates and an overview of developments in this area will be outlined. The radioisotope 26Al is of particular interest, due to its observation by gamma-ray telescopes and in meteorites and recent results on studies of the relevant reactions will be presented.  Speaker: Dr. Alison Laird (University of York) • 09:40 The Future of Accelerators 40'  Speaker: Prof. Peter Ratoff (Lancaster University) Material: • 10:20 - 10:50 Coffee break • 10:50 - 12:20 PP plenary: Particle and Astroparticle Physics  Convener: Dr. Sinead Farrington (University of Warwick) Location: Schuster ( 54-0-29 - Rutherford Lecture Theatre ) • 10:50 Recent Highlights and Prospects of Quark Flavour Physics 30'  Speaker: Dr. Marco Gersabeck (University of Manchester) Material: • 11:20 Beyond the Standard Model with Intense Muons 30'  Speaker: Dr. Yoshi Uchida (Imperial College) Material: • 11:50 The Cherenkov Telescope Array 30'  Speaker: Dr. Garrett Cotter (University of Oxford) Material: • 10:50 - 12:20 NP plenary: Nuclear Physics  Convener: Prof. Michael Birse (University of Manchester) Location: Schuster ( 54-0-28 - Bragg Lecture Theatre ) • 10:50 Excited hadron spectroscopy from lattice QCD 30' Lattice QCD provides a method for performing first-principles computations of the spectra and other properties of hadrons. However, the majority of hadrons are unstable: they decay strongly and appear as resonances in hadron-hadron scattering. Moreover, there are experimental puzzles in hadron spectroscopy involving states near or above thresholds in both the light and heavy-quark sectors. We have recently made significant progress in overcoming the challenges of using Lattice QCD to study excited states, resonances and other scattering phenomena. I will give some highlights of our work, including a study that mapped out the energy-dependence of the rho resonance, appearing in elastic pi pi scattering, in unprecedented detail and an investigation of coupled-channel strangeness = 1 scattering (pi K, eta K) where we found a variety of interesting phenomena. I also comment on future prospects.  Speaker: Dr. Christopher Thomas (University of Cambridge) Material: • 11:20 Illuminating strongly interacting matter 30' The talk will present some recent physics highlights from the UK research programme at the Thomas Jefferson National Laboratory (JLAB), USA and the MAMI microtron, Germany. These facilities provide intense gamma or electron beams with energies from 0.1 to 12 GeV, enabling the study of strongly interacting matter at distance scales ranging from nuclear dimensions down to the partonic sub structure of the nucleon. Topics addressed in the talk will include the determination of neutron skins, progress in establishing the excitation spectra of the proton and neutron and new results regarding the momentum sharing between protons and neutrons in the nucleus. Research plans for the future will also be outlined.  Speaker: Prof. Daniel Watts (University of Edinburgh) Material: • 11:50 Quarks in confinement: mapping the nucleon through electron scattering 30'  Speaker: Dr. Daria Sokhan (University of Glasgow, UK) Material: • 12:20 - 14:00 Lunch • 13:00 - 14:00 HEPP AGM  Convener: Dr. Yoshi Uchida Location: Schuster ( 54-0-28 - Bragg Lecture Theatre ) • 14:00 - 15:00 NP Parallel : Light and hyper nuclei  Convener: Dr. Kieran Flanagan (University of Manchester), Mr. Alex Dicker (University of Manchester) Location: Chemistry Building ( 61-0-53 - G53 ) • 14:00 Production of multi-strange baryons in pp, p-Pb and Pb-Pb collisions in ALICE 15' The production of strange, and in particular multi-strange particles, is highly dependent on the collision system, as the strangeness production mechanisms change depending on the energy density conditions created. Making use of its tracking and particle identification detectors, ALICE is able to reconstruct the weakly decaying strange hadrons by detecting their daughter tracks. The production rates of$\Xi$and$\Omega$baryons in pp, p-Pb and Pb-Pb collisions are presented as a function of event multiplicity. The \ensuremath{p_{\rm T}}-integrated yields of these hyperons have been observed to increase in central Pb-Pb with respect to pp collisions, an effect known as strangeness enhancement and attributed to the formation of a Quark-Gluon Plasma in heavy-ion collisions. The recently measured abundances of multi-strange baryons in p-Pb collisions reveal a strong increase with multiplicity that bridges the production rates observed in the other two collision systems. The \ensuremath{p_{\rm T}}-spectra of the multi-strange hadrons are compared to the Blast-Wave model, which explores collective behaviour of the hadrons produced in the collisions. In addition, the measured multi-strange yields are weighed against strangeness production predictions by the statistical hadronisation model.  Speaker: Mr. Didier Alexandre (University of Birmingham) Material: • 14:15 Experimental and Theoretical Evidence for Alpha Cluster Breaking in 9Be 15' Two new states in an unexplored region of the 9Be spectrum have been measured through the 9Be(4He, 4He + 4He + 4He)n inelastic scattering reaction performed at the Notre Dame tandem facility. The reaction was measured using an array of double-sided silicon strip detectors and two separate beam energies of 22 and 26 MeV were used. Excited states in 9Be were reconstructed by imposing the condition that the breakup proceeded via the 8Be ground state. For the data collected at both beam energies, consistent evidence was found for new states at 9.32(3) and 10.2(1) MeV with widths of 0.201(45) and 0.582(183) MeV respectively. The width of the known 7.9 MeV state has been determined to be 748(48) keV – a higher accuracy than previously obtained. These levels are consistent in energy with states predicted by ab initio no-core configuration interaction (NCCI) calculations. Dissection of the ab initio wavefunctions provides evidence that the levels are reproducible in a harmonic oscillator valence nucleon angular momentum coupling scheme, demonstrating, for the first time, the breakdown of the well-developed α:n:α molecular structure and the transition to single particle behaviour.  Speaker: Mr. Robin Smith (University of Birmingham) Material: • 14:30 Borromean rings and 2n halo nuclei 15' Borromean rings are three rings which prohibit two of the three from being connected, but all the three are connected. In nuclear physics, recent research indicates that several exotic nuclei have the character of the Borromean rings. 22C is one of them: there are no low-lying states in 21C and the nucleus is unbound [1], while 22C is loosely bound and the upper bound of its 2n separation energy is 0.329 MeV [2]. Our research explores to what extent the Borromean ring nature of the nucleus has an effect on its measurable physical properties, and it involves a 3body cluster model and hyperspherical formalism. Using the eikonal framework, we calculate the values of breakup reaction observables. In this talk, we present our findings and future work. [1] S. Mosby et al, Nucl.Phys. A 909, 69-78 (2013) [2] L. Gaudefroy, W. Mittig, et al, Phys.Rev.Lett. 109, 202503 (2012)  Speaker: Mr. Tomokazu Miyamoto (University of Surrey) Material: • 14:45 Extracting the footprints of the 2+ excitation of the Hoyle state 15' The Hoyle state in carbon-12 is an unequivocally vital resonance; it facilitates the triple-alpha process in helium burning stars, enhancing the cross-section by approximately 8 orders of magnitude and allowing the nucleosynthesis of carbon we see abundantly in our universe today. Efforts by Morinaga to substantiate its properties using theoretical models predicted a linear chain of α-particles. This prediction proved insufficient as the 2+ rotational excitation was unambiguously not observed at the corresponding energy predicted by this linear chain configuration. By attempting to measure the structure of the Hoyle state, an understanding of why these models fail to predict the properties of such a vital resonance can be understood. In this talk, methods to isolate the 2+ excitation of the Hoyle state in carbon-12 will be presented; by measuring the energy of this rotational excitation, the moment of inertia of the Hoyle state can be extracted. Experimental efforts hope to verify state-of-the-art ab initio QCD lattice calculations which predict a bent-arm configuration. This excited state also has a profound effect on stellar cross sections. It however, remains elusive. Further measurements of the state aim to confirm earlier measurements of the state which indicate the state has the expected J(π)=2(+). The 12C(α,12C*->8Be+ α)α reaction channel was examined using data collected at the Notre Dame Tandem facility at a beam energy of 28 MeV using an array of silicon double-sided silicon strip detectors to reconstruct the break-up kinematics. The difficulties in isolating this resonance will be discussed and a new method to extract the strength of the 2+ state utilising angular correlations will be presented with applications to all sequential breakup reactions which proceed via spin 0 initial and final products. A brief discussion of current work to determine the alpha clustering in 16O will also be presented.  Speaker: Mr. Jack Bishop (University of Birmingham) Material: • 14:00 - 15:00 NP Parallel : Neutron-rich nuclear structure  Convener: Prof. Wilton Catford (University of Surrey), Mr. Duncan Hodge (University of Manchester) Location: Chemistry Building ( 61-0-54 - G54 ) • 14:00 Spectroscopy of 81,82Zn from the First SEASTAR Campaign at RIKEN 15' Evaluating the systematics of the first excited states is a way in which the shape and structure of nuclei can be probed. For very neutron-rich nuclei for which very little, if anything, is known this can be a very informative first investigation. In the case of the Zr isotopes, observations of the E(2+) indicate a possible N=56 sub-shell closure, which could greatly affect our knowledge of the collectivity in the region. Searching for the onset of this possible N=56 sub-shell closure from Zn to Zr is one of the aims of the SEASTAR (Shell Evolution and Search for Two-plus energies At the RIBF) project. The first campaign of the SEASTAR project was conducted at RIBF, RIKEN, Japan during spring 2014, where fragmentation beams were produced by impinging a 238U primary beam of 345 MeV/u onto a Be target. The BigRIPS spectrometer was used to select three different secondary beam settings during the campaign, the setting centred on 79Cu was of interest for the discussed work. These secondary beams were impinged on MINOS, the liquid hydrogen target system, with the ZeroDegree spectrometer being used to identify the reaction products. In-beam gamma-ray spectroscopy of the reaction products was performed using DALI2, an array of 186 NaI detectors covering angles from 10--100o around the MINOS target. The first excited states are not known for the Zn isotopes beyond N=50 and the SEASTAR project intends to extend the knowledge in this isotopic chain. Preliminary results will be presented on the 81,82Zn isotopes, produced in proton knockout reactions during this first campaign.  Speaker: C.M. Shand (University of Surrey) Material: • 14:15 Using collinear laser spectroscopy to determine the nuclear spin and moments of odd-A isotopes of Zn 15' A laser spectroscopy experiment was performed on Zn (Z=30) isotopes at ISOLDE-CERN. Using the high-resolution collinear laser spectroscopy setup (COLLAPS) we have produced hyperfine spectra for the ground and isomeric states of 62-80Zn. For an efficient spectroscopic technique, the metastable 4s4p3P2 atomic state was populated using sodium vapour for the charge exchange process. This facilitated the 481.1873 nm spin sensitive transition via laser excitation to the 4s5s3S1 state. Investigations of isotopes around the Z=28 regions allow us to investigate level migrations and shell structure over the N=40 and N=50 shell closure. Our results will provide clarification of the tentative spin assignments of neutron rich odd-A Zn isotopes and isomers. The subsequent nuclear moments are a sensitive probe of the nuclear wave function, which are essential in testing shell model calculations. In this contribution, the experimental set-up and laser spectroscopy techniques will be discussed, along with some of the results in relation to nuclear moments and spin of the odd-A isotopes and their isomers.  Speaker: Mr. Calvin Wraith (University of Liverpool) Material: • 14:30 Yrast 6+ Isomers in 136,138-Sn 15' Using a 238-U Beam at RIBF, RIKEN gamma-ray cascades from a (6+) isomeric state were observed in neutron rich 136,138-Sn. The energies and transitions rates of these transitions have been reproduced with shell models using realistic effective interactions. Reproducing such quantities so far from stability is a benchmark for shell model calculations.  Speaker: Dr. James Keatings (Student) Material: • 14:45 Isomer spectroscopy of neutron-rich rare-earth nuclei 15' Rare-earth nuclei are created via the$r$process in supernovae. The deformation of nuclei around$A = 160$may influence the abundances in the rare earth element peak$(Z = 57-71)$[1]. The origins of this peak are not as well known as the peaks at closed nucleon shells. Isomers can help us to probe into the low-lying excited states in these nuclei. Neutron-rich$Z = 62, 64$isotopes were produced by in-flight fission of a 345 MeV/nucleon$^{238}$U beam on a$^{9}$Be target at the Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory (RIBF), RIKEN. The nuclei were separated and tagged using the BigRIPS and ZeroDegrees spectrometer and then implanted into a stopper. The gamma-rays following isomeric decay were detected using EURICA: an array of 84 hyper-pure germanium crystals surrounding the stopper. The decay from isomeric states in$^{166}$Gd and$^{164}$Sm ($Z = 62, 64, N = 102$) has been detected for the first time [2]. The gamma spectra, level schemes and half-lives will be presented. Also to be presented are the energy systematics of the low-lying excited states in these isotopes. A local maximum at$N = 100$is revealed in the systematics of E($2^{+}$) and E($4^{+} \rightarrow 2^{+}$) by including our data at$N = 102$, which we relate to a predicted deformed shell gap [3]. This shell gap can influence$r$-process calculations. [1] R.~Surman {\em et al.}, Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 79}, 1809 (1997). [2] Z.~Patel {\em et al.}, Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 113}, 262502 (2014). [3] S.~K.~Ghorui {\em et al.}, Phys. Rev. C {\bf 85}, 064327 (2012).  Speaker: Ms. Zena Patel (University of Surrey) Material: • 14:00 - 15:00 PPAP Parallel: Higgs Physics II  Convener: Dr. Pedro Teixeira-Dias (RHUL), Mr. Samuel Webb (University of Manchester) Location: Schuster ( 54-0-62 - Blackett Lecture Theatre ) • 14:00 A search for pp→hh→bbbb on ATLAS 15' A search for pp→hh→bbbb has been performed in 19.5fb-1 of proton-proton collision data at sort(s) = 8 TeV, which were recorded by ATLAS in 2012. The decay of each Higgs boson is reconstructed as a high-pT bb system with a pair of b-tagged small-radius jets. No evidence for resonant or non-resonant Higgs pair production is observed. Using a Randall-Sundrum Kaluza-Klein graviton with k/M_Planck = 1.0 as a benchmark resonant signal, a 95% confidence level upper limit on σ pp→G*_KK→hh→bbbb of 3 fb is set for mG*_KK = 1 TeV. The search for SM hh production sets an observed 95% confidence level upper limit on σ(pp→hh→bbbb) of 198 fb, which corresponds to μ = σ/σ_SM = 57+8-6.  Speaker: Ms. Rebecca Falla (University College London) Material: • 14:15 Search for a light Higgs boson decaying to a pair of taus in the Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model at the CMS detector 15' In this talk I will present the search for a light Higgs boson decaying into a pair of taus in the context of the Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (NMSSM) at the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) detector at the LHC. The signal process searched for is the production of the newly discovered boson with mass near 125 GeV via gluon-gluon fusion, decaying into a pair of the lightest scalar or pseudoscalar NMSSM Higgs bosons, with each subsequently decaying into a pair of taus. The search covers a mass range for the lightest (pseudo)scalar boson of 4 to 8 GeV, a region not covered by any other LHC search. I will present an overview of the theoretical model, the strategy used for reconstructing the four taus, and the method by which contributions from background QCD processes are estimated.  Speaker: Mr. Robin Aggleton (University of Bristol) Material: • 14:30 Measurements of Higgs boson production cross sections at 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector 15' The ATLAS Collaboration has performed the first measurements of the fiducial and differential cross sections of the Higgs boson in the diphoton decay channel. Several variables sensitive to the kinematics and spin-CP properties of the Higgs boson are measured, as well as the jet activity produced in association with the Higgs boson. In addition, the cross sections in a selection of fiducial regions designed to be sensitive to associated production of the Higgs boson or new physics contributions are measured. The method used to extract the signal and correct the data for detector efficiencies and resolutions will be reviewed. The fiducial and differential cross sections will be presented at the particle level and compared to theoretical predictions for the Standard Model Higgs boson production. This measurement has recently been combined with a similar measurement by the ATLAS Collaboration in the ZZ*->4l decay channel to produce the most precise measurement of the Higgs boson production cross section at 8 TeV. The results of the combined measurement will also be presented and compared to state-of-the-art theoretical predictions for the Standard Model Higgs boson production.  Speaker: Ms. Michaela Queitsch-Maitland (University of Manchester) Material: • 14:45 Differential cross section measurements in H->WW at ATLAS 15' Since the discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012 and the observation of its decay to WW with H->WW*->lυlυ final state in 2014, the focus in this channel has moved to measuring Higgs properties. Despite the experimental challenge a final state including neutrinos poses, the high statistical power in H ->WW allows Higgs property measurements complementary to those made in the H->ZZ and H->γγ channels. This talk discusses the current status of the ATLAS H->WW differential cross section measurements with 20.3 /fb of 8 TeV LHC proton-proton data. By unfolding the detector resolution and extrapolating to a defined fiducial volume, distributions including the Higgs transverse momentum and jet-multiplicity will be measured.  Speaker: Paul Glaysher (University of Edinburgh) Material: • 14:00 - 15:00 PPAP Parallel: Neutrino Detectors II  Convener: Dr. Ryan Nichol (UCL), Mr. Giulio Forcolin (University of Manchester) Location: Schuster ( 54-0-28 - Bragg Lecture Theatre ) • 14:00 Design and flight of ANITA-3: a cosmogenic neutrino detector 15' In this talk I will describe the design, assembly and 2014-2015 flight of the third iteration of the Antarctic Impulse Transient Antenna (ANITA-3). ANITA is designed to search for ultra-high energy neutrinos using the ice sheets of Antarctica as its detection volume. This talk will describe the development and performance of an interferometric algorithm for event prioritisation implemented in a GPU flown on the payload flight computer.  Speaker: Ben Strutt (UCL) Material: • 14:15 Determining the Neutrino Mass Hierarchy at IceCube-DeepCore-PINGU 15' The next generation of neutrino experiments are being designed to answer the outstanding question of leptonic CP violation. This measurement can only be made through the determination of the neutrino mass ordering. The proposed Precision IceCube Next Generation Upgrade (PINGU) experiment at the South Pole presents the opportunity to address this on a short timescale. This experiment will build on the expertise already gained from the existing IceCube and DeepCore experiments. Here, the status of the detector and the dominant systematics will be discussed, with an emphasis on the UK involvement in the project.  Speaker: Mr. Steven Wren (University of Manchester) Material: • 14:30 An overview of the conceptual design and physics-based studies for the Hyper Kamiokande data acquisition system 15' The rich scientific programme of the proposed Hyper Kamiokande experiment means that the 0.56 Mton, underground, water Cherenkov detector (approximately 25 times larger than Super-Kamiokande) will be capable of detecting accelerator, atmospheric, solar and supernova neutrinos, in addition to performing proton decay searches. The UK is currently leading a physics-based study to design a robust trigger and data acquisition (DAQ) system. An overview of such studies and a conceptual design for the DAQ system will be outlined.  Speaker: Dr. Samantha Short (Queen Mary University of London) Material: • 14:45 Muon tomography for carbon storage monitoring 15' One way to reduce atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide is through carbon capture and storage technologies. Monitoring CO2 emplacement underground is required to track migration in the subsurface and possible leakage. Muon tomography has been suggested as a potential monitoring technique and muon transport simulations have been performed in Geant4 to test its suitability for monitoring CO2 storage. The outcome of these simulations will be presented as well as progress on a prototype detector that has been deployed at the Boulby Underground Laboratory.  Speaker: Mr. David Woodward (University of Sheffield) Material: • 14:00 - 15:00 PPAP Parallel: QCD/Hadrons  Convener: Prof. Michael Seymour (Manchester), Mr. Xingguo Li (Ph.D) Location: Schuster ( 54-0-64 - Moseley Lecture Theatre ) • 14:00 Recent Developments in Herwig++ 15' A major new version of Herwig++ is about to be released, featuring a completely new treatment of NLO process generation, matching and merging to matrix elements and a new dipole-based parton shower algorithm. I will give an overview of some of these developments, as well as ongoing work and future directions.  Speaker: Mr. Graeme Nail (University of Manchester) Material: • 14:15 Asymptotic BFKL Ansatz. 15' We apply Quantum Spectral Curve (QSC) method to studying anomalous dimensions of single-trace operators in planar N=4 SYM in a special regime which generalizes the well-known BKFL regime. We derive an Asymptotic Bethe Ansatz-like system of equations governing the anomalous dimensions of operators in this regime and solve it in several special cases. For twist 2 operators of sl(2) sector our equations reproduce the leading order BFKL eigenvalue, i.e. anomalous dimension at spin analytically continued to S=-1. For twist 3 we obtain an equation for the anomalous dimension, which agrees with perturbative calculations. We also successfully use QSC to develop a systematic expansion around the value of spin analytically continued to -2, which corresponds to summing the leading logarithms in scattering amplitudes in all orders of perturbation theory.  Speaker: Mr. Grigory Sizov (King's College Lodon) Material: • 14:30 Measuring open charm hadron production in proton-proton collisions at √s = 13 TeV with the LHCb detector 15' The measurement of open charm hadron production cross-sections provides an excellent test of QCD, particularly at large rapidity where higher-order corrections may need to be resummed. Additionally, these cross-sections form an essential component of many other measurements and the LHCb collaboration plans to measure them at$\sqrt{s} = 13~\text{TeV}$early in LHC Run II. The acceptance of the LHCb detector, between 2 and 5 in pseudorapidity, is unique at the LHC for such a measurement. Using the first${\sim}30\text{pb}^{-1}$of data collected during LHC Run II, the initial programme will measure double differential production cross-sections of$D^0$,$D^+$,$D_s^+$,$D^*(2010)^+$, and$\Lambda_c^+$hadrons as a function of hadron rapidity and transverse momentum. Subsequent work will investigate the production of$D^*(2007)^0$,$D_s^{*+}$,$\Sigma_c^0$,$\Sigma_c^{++}$,$\Xi_c^0$and$\Xi_c^+$. This talk will discuss the physics motivation for the measurement and describe the analysis strategy that has been developed using data taken at$\sqrt{s} = 7~\text{TeV}\$ during 2011.
 Speaker: Mr. Christopher Burr (University of Southampton, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory) Material:
• 14:45 Double Parton Interaction with leptonic final state on LHC 15'
The double parton interactions have been of great interest during the Run 1 of LHC, since they provide essential information about the partonic model. ATLAS previous measurements on Double Parton Interactions (DPI) have been done using jets. In the present talk, I examine the possibility of a DPI measurement through Double Drell-Yan mechanism of Z bosons decaying on 4 leptons. Τhe clear final state can provide robust measurements with low uncertainties. Furthermore, the prospects of a DPI measurement at the era of HL-LHC are presented.
 Speaker: Mr. Dimitrios Kyriazopoulos (University of Sheffield) Material:
• 14:00 - 15:00 PPAP Parallel: Detectors II  Convener: Prof. Roger JONES (Lancaster University), Mr. Steven Murphy (University of Manchester) Location: Schuster ( 54-6-6.40 - Niels Bohr Common Room )
• 14:00 3He magnetometer for Muon g-2 experiment 15'
We discuss the design of a sensitive magnetometer based on the detection of free spin precession of polarized spherical 3He sample. The apparatus will be used to measure absolute magnetics B field and cross calibrating water based magnetometer used in Muon g-2 experiment to monitor magnetic field. Using hyperpolarized 3He in place of water in an absolute calibration probe has several advantages that will lead to reduce the systematic uncertainties of the Muon g-2 experiment.
 Speaker: Dr. Babak Abi (University of Oxford) Material:
• 14:15 Charge collection efficiency of micro-strip silicon sensors designed for studying charge multiplication after hadron irradiation 15'
The signal induced by minimum ionising particles in silicon strip detectors specially designed to investigate the process of charge multiplication has been studied by research groups within the CERN RD50 collaboration, considering possible uses for the ATLAS inner tracker upgrade 2022. In particular, various geometries of the implanted strips have been implemented on miniature (~1x1 cm2) micro-strip sensors on a 6” wafer to observe the effect of these variations on the electric field strength. The sensors, produced by Micron Semiconductor Ltd, vary in strip pitch and strip width, in the use of intermediate biased or floating strips between the readout strips and also in sensor thickness. In addition to the standard implant process, the implant energy for the phosphorous doping (n-type strips) and the diffusion time were increased for some devices to study the possible impact of the depth junction profile on charge multiplication. Charge collection measurements were performed with the ALiBaVa readout setup after irradiation with a neutron fluences of 1e15 and 5e15 1MeV neq/cm2 (neq/cm2). Several sensors exhibit enhancement of the collected charge compared to the standard sensor (pitch 80μm, width 25μm) after neutron irradiation of 5e15 neq/cm2. Results of ongoing room temperature annealing studies, as well as long term bias studies will be presented.
 Speaker: Mr. Sven Wonsak (University of Liverpool) Material:
• 14:30 The Birmingham Irradiation Facility 15'
The Birmingham Irradiation Facility was installed and commissioned in early 2013, using the Medical Physics MC40 Cyclotron at the University of Birmingham. Irradiations are performed using a cooled thermal chamber which is moved continuously by a pre-configured XY-axis cartesian robot system. The thermal chamber moves through the homogenous beam spot which irradiates materials to High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) fluences of 10^{15} (1 MeV neutron equivalent) cm^{-2} in 80 seconds, using a 1 μA beam current. The facility allows existing detector technologies, new components and materials to be examined to evaluate their performance at HL-LHC fluences. This talk will review the status of the Birmingham Irradiation Facility and the recent upgrades.
 Speaker: Ms. Kerry Parker (University of Sheffield) Material:
• 14:45 Heating of ATLAS Silicon Sensors at the Birmingham Irradiation Facility 15'
The upgraded Birmingham Irradiation Facility is able to deliver HL-LHC fluences (1e15  (1MeV neutron equivalent) cm-2) within minutes, and is used for radiation damage testing of the ATLAS tracker Si sensors. The high fluences result in the heating of the sensors under test and leads potentially to annealing, complicating the extraction of conclusions on the radiation damage of the sensors. The importance of annealing in determining the long term stability of the sensor operation is a subject of interest for the long life-time of the sensors envisaged for HL-LHC.
 Speaker: Mr. Matthew Baca (University of Birmingham) Material:
• 14:00 - 15:00 PPAP Parallel: Neutrino Interactions  Convener: Prof. Christos Touramanis (University of Liverpool), Ms. Sarah Barnes (University of Manchester) Location: Schuster ( 54-0-29 - Rutherford Lecture Theatre )
• 14:00 Differences between nue and numu interactions 15'
A study of differences in electron neutrino and muon neutrino interactions using the T2K ND280 detector will be performed in this analysis. The T2K beam energy peaking at around 0,6 GeV is ideal for studying these differences as this is the region with the largest expected difference. To cancel the large beam flux uncertainties, the ratio of the number of CCQE interactions to the number of CC inclusive interactions is calculated for electron and muon neutrinos. The ratio of these ratios is then calculated to study the differences between electron and muon neutrinos for energies starting at the muon production threshold to 2GeV. Understanding these ratios will help reduce the uncertainties on future oscillation measurements.
 Speaker: Mr. Iain Lamont (Lancaster University) Material:
• 14:15 Selecting charged-current muon-neutrino interactions with associated neutral-pion production in the T2K near detector. 15'
One of the largest sources of systematic uncertainty associated with searches for muon-neutrino to electron-neutrino oscillations at the T2K experiment, is due to the uncertainties on the flux and cross sections for neutrino interactions.
The neutral-pion working group for the T2K near detector is developing analyses to measure a broad range of charged-current and neutral-current, inclusive and exclusive final states with associated neutral-pion production with the aim of using these as constraints on the oscillation analysis.
This talk will present results from a first attempt to select charged-current muon-neutrino interactions, with single neutral-pion production in the final states at the T2K near detector. In particular, the cut-based selection of muons within the fine-grained detectors and time-projection chambers will be shown, along with the reconstruction of neutral-pions from their decay products in the electromagnetic calorimeters using a boosted decision tree selection technique.
 Speaker: Mr. Matthew Lawe (University of Lancaster) Material:
• 14:30 CCQE-like cross sections at T2K 15'
The charged-current quasi-elastic interaction is of great importance to T2K and the proposed future experiment Hyper-K.
Previous measurements of this interaction on hydrogen and deuterium targets led to a very well measured and understood interaction, with a precise predictive theory, however more recent measurements from experiments such as MiniBooNE which use heavy nuclear targets have shown that our naive nuclear models may not form a complete description of this interaction on heavy targets.  For this reason more, model-independent data is desperately needed.
I present a measurement of the CCQE-like cross section at the T2K near detector, ND280, performed in a model-independent way such that it can be directly compared with theoretical predictions.
 Speaker: Mr. Andrew Furmanski (University of Manchester) Material:
• 14:45 Neutral current single π0 production at the near detector of the T2K experiment. 15'
A major background to the T2K νe appearance measurement is single π0 production at the far detector (Super-Kamiokande). A large uncertainty in this cross-section makes it a significant systematics in the current analysis. Extrapolating near detector (ND280) measurements to Super-Kamiokande is an important focus for reducing the overall error budget. This talk considers the specific topology in which neutrino induced neutral current single π0 production occurs in the fine grain detectors of ND280 and the subsequent decay photons convert in the electromagnetic calorimeters surrounding the tracker region. Of particular interest is the implementation and optimisation of cuts to maximise the efficiency and purity of such a signal.
 Speaker: Mr. Leon Pickard (University of Sheffield) Material:
• 15:00 - 15:30 Coffee break
• 15:30 - 17:30 STFC Town Meetings
All IOP2015 participants encouraged to attend!
 Location: Schuster ( 54-0-29 - Rutherford Lecture Theatre )
• 15:30 Report from STFC CEO 30'  Speaker: Prof. John Womersley (STFC) Material:
• 16:15 Update from Science Board 20'  Speaker: Prof. Dan Tovey (University of Sheffield) Material:
• 16:50 Public Engagement 20'  Speaker: Dr. Elizabeth Cunningham (STFC)
• 17:45 - 22:00 Conference Dinner  Location: Gorton Monastery
• Thursday, 2 April 2015
• 09:00 - 11:00 Keynote Plenary  Convener: Tara Shears (University of Liverpool) Location: Roscoe Building ( 53-0-A - Theatre A )
• 09:00 Heavy Ion Physics 40'  Speaker: Prof. David Evans (University of Birmingham) Material:
• 09:40 Dark Matter Searches 40'  Speaker: Prof. Alexander Murphy (University of Edinburgh) Material:
• 10:20 From Astrophysical Neutrinos to Neutrino Physics at the South Pole 40'  Speaker: Prof. Marek Kowalski (Humboldt-University zu Berlin and DESY) Material:
• 11:00 - 11:30 Coffee break
• 11:30 - 12:30 PP plenary: Particle and Astroparticle Physics  Convener: Dr. David Waters (UCL) Location: Schuster ( 54-0-29 - Rutherford Lecture Theatre )
• 11:30 Experimental Status of Neutrino Mass Determinations 30'
Winner IoP HEPP Group Prize 2014
 Speaker: Dr. Justin Evans (University of Manchester) Material:
• 12:00 HEP phenomenology - the Quest for Highest Precision at Highest Energies 30'  Speaker: Prof. Frank Krauss (University of Durham) Material:
• 11:30 - 12:30 NP plenary: Nuclear Physics  Convener: Dr. Paul Campbell (University of Manchester) Location: Schuster ( 54-0-28 - Bragg Lecture Theatre )
• 11:30 Picking the needles from the haystack 30'
The challenge for nuclear spectroscopy is picking out from a complex spectrum of states signatures of the underlying nuclear structure. The fact that correlations in nuclear structure can drive the formation of particular symmetries and structures has been hotly debated and the key is to identify experimental signatures that transcend the complexity. In this talk the most recent work on the structure of 12C [1,2], 14C [3] and 12Be[4] will be unpicked to examine how close we are to being able to make definitive statements about the structure of these nuclei and the link to alpha-particle like structures and symmetries and the nature of the valence neutrons. It will also examine the role that small scale facilities coupled with bespoke instrumentation can continue to have on driving understanding of nuclear spectroscopy.
[1] D. J. Marín-Lámbarri, R. Bijker, M. Freer, M. Gai, Tz. Kokalova, D. J. Parker, and C. Wheldon, Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 012502 (2014)
[2] C. Wheldon, Tz. Kokalova, M. Freer, A. Glenn, D. J. Parker, T. Roberts, and I. Walmsley, Phys. Rev. C 90, 014319 (2014).
[3] M. Freer, J. D. Malcolm, N. L. Achouri, N. I. Ashwood, D. W. Bardayan, S. M. Brown, W. N. Catford, K. A. Chipps, J. Cizewski, N. Curtis, K. L. Jones, T. Munoz-Britton, S. D. Pain, N. Soić, C. Wheldon, G. L. Wilson, and V. A. Ziman, Phys. Rev. C 90, 054324 (2014)
[4] M. Freer, et al. submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett.
 Speaker: Prof. Martin Freer (University of Birmingham)
• 12:00 Development of a new detector for enhanced gamma-ray spectroscopy and imaging 30'
A new project is underway that seeks to demonstrate gamma-ray tracking and imaging with a next-generation design germanium detector.  The Segmented, Inverted-coaxial GerMAnium (SIGMA) detector will be revolutionary as it will be possible to measure the energies and positions of gamma-ray interactions within the detector with a precision that is unrivalled by other germanium detectors.  The long-term objective is to deploy detectors of this type in experiments to investigate the decay of exotic nuclei that lie at the observable limits of the nuclear landscape.  A secondary aim is to evaluate the suitability of the detector as a gamma-ray imaging system for commercial and industrial applications, which builds upon techniques developed at the University of Liverpool.  This talk will introduce the concepts of gamma-ray tracking and imaging, discuss the revolutionary SIGMA detector technology and share the latest results from recent gamma-ray spectroscopy and imaging projects at the University of Liverpool.
 Speaker: Dr. Laura Harkness-Brennan (University of Liverpool)
• 12:30 - 13:00 Lunch