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The aim of Particle Physics is to understand
matter and the fundamental forces in the universe and ultimately form
a Theory of Everything. The Standard Model
of Particle Physics beautifully brings together three of the four forces
of nature (strong, electromagnetic and weak) in a framework encompassing 6 quarks and 6 leptons, and
the gauge particles which mediate their interactions (photons, W bosons, Z bosons and gluons).
Ultimately, we hope to incorporate the fourth force in nature, gravity, into this Standard Model.
Big Bang models of the formation of our universe typically predict
that our world should be equal parts matter and antimatter. However, all indications
are that our universe is dominated by matter, and something happened to all the antimatter.
The BaBar experiment was designed to study the matter-antimatter asymmetry of
the universe... and along the way we are also producing one of the world's largest samples of
beautiful and charmed mesons, so we can also do some pretty nifty precision
studies on these heavy short-lived particles.
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Science
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The physics of the beautiful quark and CP violation (matter-antimatter asymmetry) is the central focus of the BaBar experiment.
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People
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The BaBar collaboration consists of physicists and engineers from 75
institutions in 10 countries. At UBC, we have 3 Faculty members, 2 Research Associates, plus about half a dozen graduate and undergraduate
students at any given time. We have sufficient funding to recruit about 2 new graduate students per year- plus a couple of summer or co-op students.
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Facilities
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The UBC Particle Physics group has its own computing facilities, access to electronics and machine shops and infrastructure at TRIUMF, and pleasant lab and
office space.
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The Experiment
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The BaBar detector is located at SLAC at the collision point of the PEP-II storage ring. The BaBar drift chamber was
assembled here in Canada (at TRIUMF) and installed in the detector at SLAC in 1998.
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Key Publications
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Babar and SLAC press releases, published papers and other documentation is available online.
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Join UBC BaBar
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The UBC BaBar group can take on a couple of promising graduate and undergraduate students each year.
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Particle Physics Humour
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The lighter side of particle physics!
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