Fundamental particle physics with high-power microwaves
Institutskolloquium
- Date: Oct 1, 2021
- Time: 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM (Local Time Germany)
- Speaker: Dr. Akira Miyazaki
- Akira studied plasma physics when he was an undergraduate student in the University of Tokyo from 2005, and joined LHC-CMS as a CERN summer student in 2009. During his master course, he studied particle physics at LHC-ATLAS in Tokyo. After the discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012, in collaboration with a gyrotron facility at Fukui University (FIR-FU), he tried to find an alternative and unique path to go beyond the Standard Model of particle physics with high-power microwaves. In 2014 at the University of Tokyo, he defended his PhD thesis about first direct measurement of positronium hyperfine structure using gyrotrons. He moved to CERN as a CERN research fellow and then was affiliated to the University of Manchester to work on response of superconductors against high-power microwaves. Since 2019, he has been working at Uppsala University as a staff researcher for superconducting particle accelerators. His present research interest is using high-power microwaves to understand objects written by either relativistic or non-relativistic quantum field theory, namely, new particle physics beyond the Standard Model and superconductors beyond the conventional theory. His research achievements include precision tests of quantum electrodynamics with high-power microwaves, investigation of surface resistance of thin-film superconductors, non-linear dynamics of trapped magnetic vortices in superconductors under strong microwaves, and superconducting accelerating cavities for protons and heavy ions. In parallel to these scientific researches, he has been leading several international projects on superconducting accelerators in Europe, such as HIE-ISOLDE, HL-LHC, and currently European Spallation Sources in Sweden. Recently, he is proposing a new international experiment for dark matter physics based on high-power microwaves.
- Location: Zoom Meeting Room 1
- Room: Zoom Meeting
- Host: Dmitry Moseev
- Contact: dmitry.moseev@ipp.mpg.de
The Standard Model of particle physics was completed by discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012. This model beautifully explains most of the experimental facts but does contradict with some important exceptions. One of the major issues of particle physics is lack of dark matter candidates in its present form, and therefore, lots of possible extensions beyond the Standard Model have been proposed, including super string theory. Such extensions naturally predict new particles which may very weakly interact with the ordinary particles in the Standard Model. Some of them can be dark matter candidates. Since an ordinary photon may couple with such hypothetical particles, new photon technology, in particular above 30 GHz, is a key to address such particles in unexplored parameter regions. In this colloquium, general introduction of this research field of particle physics will be presented, followed by two specific projects related to gyrotrons, originally developed for plasma heating and nuclear fusion. First, we will discuss precision measurement of atomic levels of positronium, a bound state of electron and position, by using gyrotrons. Secondly, direct search for new massive gauge bosons, often referred to as dark photons, with gyrotrons of frequency higher than 30 GHz, will be proposed. The latter project is under the preliminary consideration with Karlsruhe Institute for Technology to use their R&D gyrotron. In these applications for particle physics, a crucial engineering aspect is the ultimate frequency stability of gyrotrons with for example phase-lock loop and injection locking techniques. The impact of these new techniques to the fundamental physics will be described. Furthermore, ultimate limitation of classical electrodynamics for photon detection will be introduced with its remedy with superconducting quantum sensors, which is a hot topic in the particle physics community with a link to quantum computing technology.