The High Energy Physics Group at York University is composed of experimentalists and theorists, who aim to solve the mysteries of the universe through the exploration of the subatomic world. We are currently involved in the ATLAS experiment at CERN, the T2K experiment at J-parc, and the ALPHA collaboration at CERN. The theory group is involved in research of the Standard Model of particles physics and physics Beyond the Standard Model.

Please also see High Energy Physics page for more information.

Experimental

Sampa Bhadra

Professor Sampa Bhadra is studying the properties of the neutrino, the least understood of the fundamental particles in our universe, at the T2K experiment in Japan. Recently there were dramatic results from T2K in “neutrino oscillations”, a quantum mechanical process mixing the 3 known types of neutrino, and T2K was awarded a prestigious prize by La Recherche, a French science magazine, for finding the first indications of oscillations from muon neutrinos to electron neutrinos. See: Physical Review Letters 107, 041801 (2011). These results show a way forward to investigate whether neutrino physics holds the key to why our universe is made only of matter, whereas matter and anti-matter were produced equally in the Big Bang. At T2K this will be studied by comparing physics results using beams of neutrinos and anti-neutrinos.

William Frisken

Professor Emeritus of Physics William Frisken is interested in observing collisions between the most elementary particles available, at the highest possible momentum transfer. Currently investigating limiting behaviour of Niobium and films of Niobium and Niobium alloys used in Superconducting R.F. cavities, with a view to increasing the affordable energy of a future linear collider.

Scott Menary

Professor Scott Menary is presently concentrating on two efforts, both of which offer many possibilities for exciting undergraduate and graduate student projects. One of them, the ALPHA (Antihydrogen Laser PHysics Apparatus) experiment at CERN, is producing, trapping, and performing laser spectroscopy on a large sample of antihydrogen atoms in order to compare matter and antimatter systems with unparalleled precision.

Wendy Taylor

Professor Wendy Taylor   is a member of the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, in Geneva, Switzerland. The LHC is the world's highest energy particle accelerator, currently delivering 8-TeV proton-proton collisions, which the ATLAS experiment studies for signs of the postulated Higgs boson and other new physics. My own research includes searching for magnetic monopoles and Supersymmetry.

Theory 

Matthew Johnson

Professor Matthew Johnson's goal in research is to understand the fundamental laws of nature through their impact on cosmology. He is primarily a theorist, dabbling in cosmology, field theory, string theory, and gravitation. He is actively engaged in research on cosmic inflation, eternal inflation, topological defects, and models of dark energy. He also designs data analysis algorithms to confront fundamental theory with observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation. Here is a sampling of the questions that drive his research: How big is the universe? What might lie beyond our observable universe, and how could we confirm or disprove various proposals? What role do the extra dimensions predicted by string theory play in cosmology? What is the fundamental nature of space-time singularities? Are there new ways of looking at cosmological datasets that could be useful when confronting theories with data? Can computer simulations of the very early universe shed light on it's possible initial conditions and evolution?

Roman Koniuk

Professor Roman Koniuk aims for an understanding of strongly coupled quantum field theories, quantum chromodynamics (QCD) in particular. QCD is the theory of the nuclear and sub-nuclear strong force, the force that binds protons and neutrons to form nuclei and at a deeper level, the force that binds quarks to form neutrons and protons. Although the theory can be stated very compactly and elegantly, its solution has eluded physicists for close to 30 years. This is perhaps not surprising as QCD can be thought of as a theory of 104 complex-valued quantum variables at each point in space. One of the most promising approaches for studying QCD is Monte-Carlo simulation of the field theory on a space-time lattice. My students and I are using this technique to study nuclear forces, colour-flux-tube breaking and other problems.

Randy Lewis

Professor Randy Lewis uses computer simulations of lattice quantum field theories are to study topics in QCD (the theory of quarks and gluons) and to explore theories beyond the standard model of particle physics.

Kim Maltman

Professor Kim Maltman is interested in the consequences of the Standard Model of particle physics for few-body nuclear systems and low-energy particle physics and dynamics. Recent research has focussed on the QCD, the theory of the strong interactions, using the techniques of chiral perturbation theory and various versions of QCD sum rules to study weak strong and electromagnetic observables.