Students

Since acquiring my master degree (cand. scient.) I've fully or partially supervised the following students (in reverse chronological order):

Peter Rosendahl
Period: Juni - September 2007
Place: CERN
Project: Multiple scattering in ATLAS Combined Test Beam
Level: CERN Summer Student project.
Result: Report acknowledged by CERN.
Comments: Peter worked on multiple scattering in the Combined Test Beam, and comparing the effect of additional material between data, simulation, and theory. To allow the same type of study in collission data, Peter wrote a tool, which divides a full track into refitted segments. The project was both accepted and welcomed.

Mathieu Aurousseau
Period: June - August 2006, July - September 2007
Place: NBI and CERN
Project: Photon conversions and energy calibration in ATLAS Combined Test Beam
Level: Master level project and CERN Summer Student project.
Result: Report acknowledged by Ecole Normale Superieur (Grenoble) and by CERN.
Comments: Mathieu worked on the photon runs of the Combined Test Beam, looking for conversions, which is quite important both for determining the size and distribution of material in the detector, but also in the search for the Higgs boson (decaying to two photons). Mathieu's work was not only accepted at his home institution, but following a stay at CERN as a Summer Student 2007, he started his Ph.D. in Annecy searching for the Higgs decaying to two photons.

Group 1: Lea Hildebrandt Rossander, Joakim Sandroos, Hans Georg Hegelund, Martin Barming Nielsen
Group 2: Morten Sonne Hornbech Jensen, Jerôme Wüppesahl Hindsgaul Baltzersen, Mona Thorup Kildetoft, Kim Petersen
Forskerspire: Emilie Elkjaer, Soeren Nissen
Period: Januar - April 2006
Place: NBI
Project: Higgs/Exotics Hunting
Level: 1st year project
Result: 1st year project (grades: Group 1 got 10 (A-), Group 2 got 13 (A+))
Comments: Eight students decided to write their first year project on the search for the Higgs particle and other exotics, and given two research aspires (dk: forsker-spire) and a trainee, a Higgs Seminar was held, after which the students started analysing a sample composed of jet-jet, Z0->ee, and H0->ee events.
Group 1 decided to focus on the precision with which significance the Higgs signal could be observed as a function of the Higgs mass, and also what precion the mass and width measurements would have.
Group 2 chose to consider the electron PID variables, and build better electron PID through likelihood fits, Fisher discriminant and neural network, thereby enhancing the Higgs signal.

Martin Skou
Period: October 2005 - ? 2007
Place: NBI
Project: ATLAS (W mass)
Level: Master Thesis (Cand. Scient.)
Result:
Comments: Martin started by working on visualization of W and Z events and improving the W mass fitting code. He is now working on the theoretical systematics of the W mass measurement, more precisely on those associated with the width of the W and the PDF uncertainty. His estimates of the impact of the PDF uncertainties on the Z peak were shown at the LHC conference in Cracow Summer 2006.

Claire Picq
Period: February - July 2005
Place: NBI
Project: ATLAS (W mass)
Level: Master level project
Result: Report acknowledged by Ecole Normale Superieur (Paris)
Comments: Claire worked mainly on the W mass fitting code. Her work was used for the Atlas Rome Physics Workshop.

Sascha Mehlhase
Period: February - September 2005, February 2006 - February 2007
Place: NBI and CERN
Project: ATLAS (TRT PID + W mass)
Level: Master level project + Master Thesis (Cand. Scient.)
Result:
Comments: Sascha worked on PID in the TRT using both stand-alone and combined testbeam data. Including the variations in the straw response in a likelihood approach and including the Time-over-Threshold information, the TRT PID (electron/pion separation) was improved 40-80%.
He also worked on the W mass measurement, where he focused on the important systematic error from final state radiation (FSR). Using the simulation program PHOTOS, he not only established the size of the error, but also determined the calorimeter response to radiative events in general.

Jakob, Matilde, Jesper og Finn Tore
Period: Januar - April 2005
Place: NBI
Project: Hulse Taylor Pulsar
Level: 1st year project
Result: 1st year project (grade: 10 (A-))
Comments: After having lectured on the relativistic Doppler effect and used the Hulse Taylor Pulsar as an example, Jakob, Matilde, Jesper, and Finn Tore asked (insistingly) if it would be possible to do their first year project on the Hulse Taylor Pulsar. Through simulation they determined with which precision one could determine the radial velocity of the pulsar, and given this result with which precision the orbital period could be determined. They compared this result to the rate at which the pulsars orbital period changes, and thus how long time was required to indirect observe gravitational waves. Their project was given the grade 10, for solving a very hard problem in a quite satisfactory fashion.

Thomas Kittelmann
Period: September 2001 - June 2003
Place: Berkeley + NBI
Official supervisor: John R. Hansen
Project: BaBar (B0 width difference)
Level: Master Thesis (Cand. Scient.)
Result: Master Thesis (grade: 13 (A+))
Comments: The idea of Thomas coming to Berkeley was born out of my own experience and connection to LBL. He worked on the measurement of the width difference between the two neutral B-mesons, which is a very hard measurement, and which nobody at the time had tried to measure or set a limit on. Soon after he started the work, others also began to consider the measurement, which let to many interesting discussions of strategy. Thomas worked very independently, contributed to the work of this measurement, wrote up an excellent master thesis and recieved the highest grade possible for it.