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Priscilla Cushman

Professor

260F Tate, 626-8917/624-1534, email prisca @ physics.umn.edu
http://www.hep.umn.edu/~prisca/
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Cushman

We used to think we understood what everything was made of, from the quarks inside protons and neutrons to the stars and galaxies. We call this the Standard Model. However, over the last couple decades, it has become obvious that a class of new elementary particles (called dark matter) make up 80% of the stuff of the Universe. My focus these days is trying to understand the nature of that dark matter through direct detection of it as it rains down on us here on Earth.

Research Areas
Dark matter searches, novel particle detectors, collaborative work toward a Center for Underground Science through the DUSEL initiative

Current Research

Exploration into the building blocks of matter through complementary approaches: (1) the most sensitive search for a direct signal from the dark matter halo surrounding our galaxy (the CDMS experiment in the Soudan Underground Laboratory in northern Minnesota), (2) the highest energy accelerator (The CMS experiment at the future Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland), and (3) the most precise measurement of the magnetic moment of the muon (g-2 at Brookhaven Lab in New York).

Development of novel detectors for particle physics takes place in our on-site photodetector test facility. A new Low Background Counting Facility has been established at the Soudan Mine. I am also PI of a proposal to build a new radiopurity assay installation at the new Deep Underground Science and Engineering Lab in the Homestake Mine in South Dakota.

Advisees and Collaborators

David Cerdeno, Visitor
Alex DiBenedetto, research collaborator
Scott Fallows, Research Assistant
Matthew Fritts, Research Collaborator
Wolfe Greene, research collaborator
Thomas Hofer, Research Assistant
Mike Kelsey
Kristopher Koch, Research Assistant
Ben Loer, Visitor
Leyre Otano, Visitor
Mark Pepin, Research Assistant
Angela Reisetter, Visiting Research Associate
Anthony Villano, Research Associate

Selected Publications

Z. Ahmed et al, (CDMS Collaboration) Dark Matter Search Results from the CDMS II, Experiment Science 26 March 2010 Vol. 327. no. 5973, pp. 1619 – 1621

Z. Ahmed et al, (CDMS Collaboration) Low-threshold analysis of CDMS shallow-site data, Phys.Rev. D82:122004, 2010 arXiv:1010.4290

Z. Ahmed et al, (CDMS Experiment) Search for Axions with the CDMS Experiment, Cover Article: 2 Oct 2009 Phys. Rev. Lett.103, No.141802 (2009) arXiv:0902.4693v1

Z. Ahmed et al, (CDMS Collaboration) A Search for WIMPs with the First Five- Tower Data from CDMS, Phys. Rev. Lett. 011301 Jan 2009

G.W. Bennett et al, (Muon (g-2) Collab.) An Improved Limit on the Muon Electric Dipole Moment, Phys. Rev. D 80, 052008 (2009) arXiv:0811.1207v1 [hep-ex]

G.W. Bennett et al., Search for Lorentz and CPT violation effects in muon spin precession., Phys. Rev. Lett. (2008)

P. Cushman and B. Sherwood, Lifetime Studies of the 19-channel Hybrid Photodiode for the CMS Hadronic Calorimeter, NIM A - March, (2008)

G.W. Bennett et al., Statistical equations and methods applied to the precision muon (g-2) experiment at BNL, NIM A579 (2007)

P.B. Cushman, Dark matter searches: Technology and backgrounds, Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A579 pp 437-442 (2007) [abstract]

P. Cushman, Low Level Counting Infrastructure and Requirements., Deep Science (NSF DUSEL Initiative) (2006) [abstract]

Education

A.B. cum laude in Physics and Philosophy, Harvard University, 1976.

Ph.D. in Physics, Rutgers University, 1985.