ALL NPPS Members

[Torre Wenaus <wenaus AT gmail.com>]

Take note of Joe's seminar tomorrow Torre ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: <elamar@ bnl. gov> Date: Mon, Sep 15, 2025 at 8: 03 AM Subject: Physics Seminars line up for the week To: <physics-seminars-l@ lists. bnl. gov>

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Take note of Joe's seminar tomorrow

  Torre

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: <elamar AT bnl.gov>
Date: Mon, Sep 15, 2025 at 8:03 AM
Subject: Physics Seminars line up for the week
To: <physics-seminars-l AT lists.bnl.gov>

Nuclear Physics Seminar
"Foundational Models for Nuclear and Particle Physics"
Presented by Joe Osborn, BNL

Tuesday, September 16, 2025, 11:00 am — Small Seminar Room, Bldg. 510

Abstract:
The rapid growth and success of large language models, utilizing self-supervised pretraining at scale, has inspired research into the potential use of foundation models (FM) in many scientific domains. However, the application of experimental nuclear and particle physics data to a FM is challenging as the data is sparse, irregular, and context and geometry dependent, unlike the dense structure of language. To address this question, a FM trained on simulated space points in the sPHENIX Time Projection Chamber was developed with the goal of characterizing model performance with model size and the performance of downstream reconstruction tasks. Track finding, particle identification, and noise tagging were studied using architectures with up to 188 million parameters. Similarly to behavior observed in other large language models, the performance of the model scales with the model size; furthermore, the largest model trained consistently surpasses the reconstruction metrics of other AI/ML models in the literature in all downstream tasks studied. This is due to the utilization of a frozen FM backbone augmented by lightweight task-specific adapters. This talk will discuss the model architecture, downstream reconstruction, and implications and possible future paths for reconstruction algorithms utilizing FMs in high energy nuclear and particle physics.


Hosted by: Takao Sakaguchi

Join Videoconference: https://bnl.zoomgov.com/j/1618286847?pwd=N20xUlNMYjhJVThoQkp5TktJdmQ5dz09
More Information: https://indico.bnl.gov/event/29543/


Particle Physics Seminar
"The Road to Hybrid Neutrino Detection with Theia"
Presented by Michael Wurm, BNL

Tuesday, September 16, 2025, 3:00 pm — Small Seminar Room, Bldg. 510

Abstract: New developments in liquid scintillators, fast photon detectors and chromatic photon sorting open the possibility for the next-generation hybrid neutrino experiment Theia. Based on the capability to discriminate Cherenkov and scintillation signals, Theia will observe particle direction and species using Cherenkov photons, while offering excellent energy resolution and the low threshold of a scintillator detector. Crucially, the hybrid Chernekov-scintillation signal provides new ways of background discrimination not available in conventional detectors. With ANNIE, EOS and the BNL prototypes, these capabilities are explored by a suite of US-based demonstrator detectors.

Hybrid detector technology provides Theia with a wide range of physics objectives: observation of low-energy neutrinos from astrophysical sources like the Sun and Supernovae, the search for leptonic CP-violation in a neutrino beam and last but not least a search for NeutrinoLess Double Beta Decay with sensitivity reaching the normal ordering regime of neutrino mass phase space.

This talk will review the physics of Theia, the envisaged layout of a future Theia detector, and the status of the current ton-scale demonstrators.



Hosted by: Jay Hyun Jo

Join Videoconference: https://fnal.zoom.us/j/99187704162?pwd=W4SEOsDY8y8GqFnoO6YxtSINg13hNr.1
More Information: https://indico.bnl.gov/event/28968/


Brookhaven Lecture
"541st Brookhaven Lecture: 'Silent Interactions, Wakefields and the Path to EIC Performance'"
Presented by Alexei Blednykh, Electron-Ion Collider

Wednesday, September 17, 2025, 4:00 pm — CFN Seminar Rm. (Bldg. 735, 2nd floor), Zoom.gov



Hosted by: Dario Stacchiola



HET seminar
"TBA"
Presented by Upalaparna Banerjee, JGU Mainz

Thursday, September 18, 2025, 11:00 am — Small Seminar Room, Bldg. 510




Hosted by: Marvin Schnubel

Join Videoconference: https://bnl.zoomgov.com/j/1605506805?pwd=AA9rwL4hM5AwG2b0zEwDdXjzhvJjSz.1
More Information: https://indico.bnl.gov/event/29224/


RBRC seminar
"Dilepton emission from moaty pions"
Presented by Dr. Robert Pisarski, BNL

Thursday, September 18, 2025, 12:30 pm — Large Seminar Room, Bldg. 510

Abstract:
For the phase diagram of QCD at nonzero temperature T and quark chemical potential mu, it is expected that there is a large "moat" regime.  In this regime, the minimum of the pion (and sigma) dispersion relations
is at nonzero spatial momentum.  I outline how dilepton emission from moaty pions could yield characteristically unique signatures, with a new threshold, and perhaps van Hove singularities, at twice the effective mass of the moaty pion.

Hosted by: Yoshitaka Hatta

Join Videoconference: https://bnl.zoomgov.com/j/1600983728?pwd=RAD7OLcqre7Ycsp6JfFp6HAnpyLxex.1
More Information: https://indico.bnl.gov/event/29690/


Town Hall for the National Academy of Sciences
"2025 Report on Elementary Particle Physics"


Friday, September 19, 2025, 2:00 pm — Science and User Support Center (SUSC, Bldg. 101),

This town hall provides an important opportunity for the particle physics community and the public to engage with the findings and recommendations from the National Academy of Sciences' comprehensive long-range strategy for elementary particle physics. The discussion will cover key insights from the report and their implications.

Speakers will include committee co-chairs Maria Spiropulu, the Shang-Yi Ch'en Professor of Physics for the Division of Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy at the California Institute of Technology, and Michael S. Turner, senior strategic advisor at the Kavli Foundation and the Bruce V. and Diana M. Rauner Distinguished Service Professor, Emeritus at the University of Chicago.






Thank you,
Erica Lamar
Brookhaven National Laboratory
Physics Department
Sr. Administrative Assistant to the Chair's Office
Building 510A
Upton, NY 11973-5000
(631) 344-2585
elamar AT bnl.gov<mailto:elamar AT bnl.gov>

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-- Torre Wenaus, BNL NPPS Group Leader, ATLAS and ePIC experiments

-- BNL 510A 1-222 | 631-681-7892