Andrew J. Lankford

Andrew J. Lankford's picture
Distinguished Professor
University of California, Irvine
ajlankfo@uci.edu
Research Website
Research Areas: 
Particle Physics; High Energy Physics; Fundamental symmetries; Electroweak interactions; Heavy quark physics
Research Type: 
Experimentalist
Research: 
The forefront research facilities of high energy physics are colliding beam accelerators. These machines provide the highest achievable interaction energies. Professor Lankford’s prior research has exploited colliders at CERN, SLAC, Fermilab, and in Beijing. His UCI collider physics group presently has an experiment at SLAC and is actively involved in developing a new experiment at CERN. An exciting aspect of participation in these large experiments is their international character.
 
At SLAC, Prof. Lankford’s group is part of the BaBar Collaboration, which studies the origins of the non-conservation of charge-parity quantum numbers. This investigation is based upon high-statistics studies of the properties of bottom quarks in electron-positron collisions at the B-factory PEP-II.
 
At CERN, Prof. Lankford’s group is part of the large international ATLAS Collaboration, which is developing an apparatus to study proton-proton collisions using a new facility, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which will provide energies higher than those yet achieved, 14TeV. Starting in 2007, experimentation at the LHC will afford the opportunity to explore physics at mass scales more than an order of magnitude higher than are currently accessible, with the promise to bring exciting new discoveries, even if the precise nature of the discoveries cannot be foreseen.
 
Professor Lankford’s research at colliders has largely focused on studies of the properties of heavy quarks and leptons and on electroweak physics. His studies utilize the detection of leptons as harbingers of rare and interesting physics processes. In addition, he develops new particle detection techniques and electronics systems for his experiments.
 
Education: 
Ph.D. 1978, Yale University
Honors & Awards: 

Yale  University; Wilber Cross Medal (2025)

Fellow, American Physical Society (2000)

Alfred P. Sloan Fellow (1972-74)

Yale University; Magna Cum Laude with Departmental Honors (1972)

Selected Publications: 

Over 350 publications, including:

Measurement of Z Decays into Lepton Pairs, G S. Abrams, et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 63, 2780 (1990).

Determination of alpha_s from a Differential Jet Multiplicity Distribution at SLC and PEP, S. Komamiya, et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 64, 987 (1990) .

Search for Nonminimal Higgs Bosons from Z Boson Decay, S. Komamiya, et al.,Phys. Rev. Lett. 64, 987 (1990).

Measurement of the bb-bar Fraction in Hadronic Zo Decays with Precision Vertex Detectors, R. Jacobsen, et al., Phys. Rev.Lett. 67, 3347 (1991).

Measurement of the Mass of the tau Lepton, J.Z. Bai, et al., Phys.Rev. Lett. 69, 3021 (1992).

Advisor: 
Jack Sandweiss
Dissertation Title: 
Measurement Of Vector Meson Production In Proton-proton Collisions At The Cern Isr
Dissertation Abstract: 
The production at large transverse momentum of low-mass electron pairs was investigated at the CERN Intersecting Storage Rings using lithium/xenon transition radiation detectors and liquid-argon calorimeters. Production of the vector mesons po, wo, and was observed with cross-sections consistent with the assumptions that pow°, and To production are nearly equal at large pr and that production is suppressed by about an order of magnitude relative to po and wo pro- duction. The observed low-mass virtual photon continuum between masses of 200 and 500 MeV was consistent with estimates of Dalitz decays plus predictions of the vector dominance model. The measured cross-section for virtual photon production enabled a limit of (0.5 ± 1.0)% to be placed on the ratio of direct real photon production to o production.