Hugh H. (Brig) Williams


Hugh H. (Brig) Williams

email williams -at- physics.upenn.edu
phone (215) 898-6284
fax (215) 898-2010
lab phone - - -
room 3N8a, David Rittenhouse Laboratory
links - - -
degree Ph.D., Stanford (1971)
keywords Experimental Elementary Particle Physics
overview

My primary interest is the study of elementary particle interactions, with particular emphasis on tests of the standard model and searches for new particles and new interactions. After working for numerous years on neutrino interactions and on precision tests of weak neutral current interactions, my interests shifted to the study of high-energy proton-antiproton interactions. I am currently participating, along with a number of other faculty in the department, in a large, sophisticated experiment at Fermilab (CDF) studying proton-antiproton interactions. My recent interests have focused especially on the discovery and study of the top quark. In the next few years , I expect to focus more strongly on searches for supersymmetric particles and for other indications of physics beyond that contained in the Standard Model.

One of the most outstanding questions which is not satisfactorily answered by the present theory is the origin of mass, or as one might phrase it within the standard model, the nature of the "Higgs sector." Questions concerning the existence and nature of Higgs bosons are more likely to be adequately addressed at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) being constructed in Europe than at existing accelerators. I am actively participating in the design and construction of the ATLAS detector which will run at LHC. I have concentrated especially on the development of fast, low-power, radiation hard electronics which will be required to obtain information from some of the most promising detectors to he used in LHC experiments. LHC experiments will of course probe many new questions other than the search for the Higgs; one of the most obvious is whether quarks themselves may have substructure.

honors - - -
positions
  • At University of Pennsylvania since 1974
  • Principal Investigator, High Energy Physics DOE Grant
  • Co-convenor of Top Physics Analysis Group, CDF Experiment
  • Member of the Executive Board, ATLAS Experiment
  • Coordinator of Front End Electronics, ATLAS Experiment
select pubs
  • Observation of Top Quark Production in p-p Collisions, by CDF Collaboration (F. Abe et al.) Phys. Rev. Lett. 74:2626-2631,1995.