CERN Beamline for Schools 2017 Student Experiment: Search for Isolated Fractionally Charged Particles

Paul Mckarris,Jacob Taylor Lehmann,Mathieu Gilmour,Markus Joos,Caitlyn Mourcos,Marina Robin,Mélanie Poirot,Denis Jacques,Lucas Ferron,Mariam Ibrahim,Emily Jean Loke,Branislav Ristic,Andrew Mourcos,Dominique Morrison,Colin Billiau,Ina Carli,Denisa Logojan

doi:10.1142/s2661339520500079

Paul Mckarris, Jacob Taylor Lehmann + Show 15 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1142/s2661339520500079

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Abstract

This article was mainly written by a team of high school students that have won the CERN Beamline for Schools (BL4S) competition in 2017. They had some help from professional scientists, in particular Branislav Ristic. The team had proposed to set up an experiment to search for elementary particles with a fractional electric charge. This paper describes the preparation of their proposal, experimental setup, detectors and data analysis throughout the search for such particles using a 10[Formula: see text]GeV[Formula: see text][Formula: see text] proton beam with a fixed iron target. It was clear to the team that the chance for finding such particles in a relatively simple experiment was minimal but that by doing this experiment they would learn a lot about experimental physics. Due to large amounts of noise, the result of the experiment is inconclusive. Further experimentation to search for these hypothesized particle is encouraged.

Highlights

Introduction by the CERNScientists and the BL4S ManagementEvery year between 150 and 200 teams participate in Beamline for Schools (BL4S),a a worldwide science competition, organized by CERN, in which high-school students propose particle physics experiments
Two winning teams are invited to perform their experiment at a fixed target beamline. As they are entirely free with respect to the experiment that they propose, the proposals reflect what these high school students know about particle physics, its applications and what they are generally interested in
The liquid scintillator material we considered for use in the FCP detector (FCPD) was mainly composed of linear alkyl benzene (LAB) and was low in cost and environmentally friendly

Summary

Introduction

Introduction by the CERNScientists and the BL4S ManagementEvery year between 150 and 200 teams participate in Beamline for Schools (BL4S),a a worldwide science competition, organized by CERN, in which high-school students propose particle physics experiments. What sets the proposal of the “Charging Cavaliers” apart is that they deliberately proposed an experiment that had never been done before (in the form proposed by them) They heard from a professor of physics of a university in Canada about particles with a fractional electric charge that are predicted by some theories but have never been detected. The team knew that finding such particles was very unlikely but they preferred the novelty over the certainty of a more conventional experiment In their proposal they explained very well the likely properties of these fractionally charged particles as well as a setup that would be able to detect them. They excluded at 95% confidence for massive spin-1/2 particles below 310 GeV with charge 2/3 and below 140 GeV with charge 1/3.8

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