Week+of+October+22-28

October 22
Jason, Jeremiah, Alex, and I arrived at 3:30. We began by looking as a group at some of the graphs we found last week; we discussed reasons for some of the trends we are seeing. In some instances, the parameters of the graphs are related physically. Energy and momentum are frequently related (E2=m2=p2; E=m). The total energy of the lighter particles is impacted more than that of the heavier particles; the heavier particles tend to "track" each other. We also saw trends in the px and pz parent rest frames; many of the particles "cancelled each other out" by travelling in opposite directions, so there was a large concentration at 0 on the x axes. When mass was plotted against E sum parent rest frame, a straight line was produced. Mass vs. E sum showed a line with a slope of 1; all points on that line possessed an equal energy and mass. This line serves as a sort of asymptote of the graph; energy has to be greater than or equal to the mass, never less than. No points lie to the left of this line. There is also a collection of points around mass 90 GeV. We then looked at a histogram that showed a spike of events at 90 GeV. These points are the z bozons. In addition, right at 40 GeV, the line of points with mass equal to energy isolates itself with the exception of a few small clumps of points; this is the mass at which we concluded cosmic rays begin. We then discussed the relativity of distance to energy when dealing with cosmic rays; because they are travelling so fast, the distance--not travel time--is shorter. Next, we looked at a px2 vs. phi1 to investigate the sinusoidal behavior. Considering that psi is measured in a circle, the sinusoidal change at negative and positive pi/2 are not too surprising. The heaviest particles had the highest momentum. When we graphed px1 vs. px2, there was a line of points at px1=-px2.

This week, I continued to find and analyze new graphs, which are pictured with descriptions in the log for the week of October 29