Study of electron-positron interactions

Abstract

For the past seven years, this group has been interested in the study of tests of the Standard Model of Electroweak interactions. The program has centered about the AMY experiment which examines the nature of the final state products in electron-positron collisions in the center of mass energy range near 60 GeV. Results of these measurements have shown a remarkable consistency with the predictions of the minimal model of 3 quark and lepton generations and single charged and neutral intermediate bosons. No new particles or excited states have been observed nor has any evidence for departures in cross sections or angular asymmetries from expectations been observed. These conclusions have been even more firmly established by the higher energy results from the LEP and SLC colliders at center of mass energies of about 90 GeV. Our focus is shifting to the neutrino as a probe to electroweak interactions. The relative merit of attempting to observe neutrinos from point sources versus observing neutrinos generally is not easy to predict. The improved ability to interpret is offset by the probably episodic nature of the emission and irreproducibility of the results. In this phase of development, it is best to be sensitive to bothmore » sources of neutrinos. As a second phase of our program at Virginia Tech, we are studying the feasibility of detecting cosmic ray neutrinos in a proposed experiment which we have called NOVA. the results of the test setup will be instrumental in developing an optimum design. A third program we are involved in is the MEGA experiment at Los Alamos, an experiment to place a limit on the rate of muon decay to electron plus photon which is forbidden by the Standard Model.« less