Departmental Colloquium

Truth and Consequences: Introducing the Top Quark

Brigitte Vachon
McGill University

Time
Wed. March 1, 2006     1:00 PM     Stirling C

Abstract

The study of the fundamental building blocks of Nature and how these particles interact with each other at the very highest energy provide invaluable information toward a better understanding of our Universe. The Standard Model of particle physics embodies our current understanding of Nature at the smallest distance scale. Of all the ingredients in the Standard Model, the top quark (also called "truth" quark) is arguably one of the most intriguing fundamental particle. I will present a brief introduction of the Standard Model and describe some of the unique properties of top quarks. I will discuss how top quark studies can impact our understanding of nature and present recent properties measurements obtained using the DZero experiment at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory; the only facility in the world capable of directly producing top quarks.

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