User:Catreroth

Marco Carrasco
(M. A. Carrasco-Lizárraga)
Marco Carrasco; (M. A. Carrasco-Lizárraga)
	Photo from 2012.01
Born	24 December 1977; Mexicali, Mexico
Nationality	Mexican
Occupation	Experimental High Energy Physicist

Marco Carrasco is an Experimental High Energy Physicist, currently residing in Taiwan as an aspiring professor at the undergraduate and graduate levels. He was a Postdoctoral Researcher for the University of Kansas's Department of Physics and Astronomy, working mostly on Particle Flow analysis devoted to R&D for the proposed International Linear Collider (ILC). Through his work with the ILC and its International Large Detector (ILD), he has collaborated with the CALICE group as well. Carrasco has been a member of the D0 Collaboration within Fermilab since 2006. In late 2009, he obtained his PhD from the Physics Department at CINVESTAV in Mexico City with a "B-physics" measurement thesis. As a graduate student stationed at DØ for almost 2 years, he was deeply involved in detector operations establishing himself as a Silicon Microstrip Tracker expert, as well as a Data Acquisition shifter. Although a native spanish speaker, he is fluent in english and also partially speaks italian. Furthermore he is currently learning mandarin, both written and spoken, which should allow him to reach more colleagues across Asia, particularly in Taiwan where he has already made his permanent residence.

On top of devoting his time and efforts to help raise knowledgeable, confident and internationally competitive young taiwanese scientists and engineers, Carrasco plans to continue and expand his work on ILC detector R&D, hoping that if the project's construction sees the light of day, it does so in Japan where it would facilitate the exchange of students and resources from a taiwanese institute. Moreover, Carrasco plans to return to B-physics with a tentative collaboration with the Belle experiment, which as well as the ILC japanese R&D effort, is located at KEK laboratory, in Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan. The possibility of eventually collaborating with CMS, ATLAS or any LHC group cannot be ruled out either.

Background

PostDoc at the University of Kansas

Carrasco's postdoctoral research at the University of Kansas was on detector R&D aimed at exploring the scientific potential of integrated detector concepts, based on particle-flow calorimetry for experimentation at a high energy electron-positron collider. He was a postdoc at KU from July 2010 until December 2011. Through his postdoc he was directly involved with the International Linear Collider ^[1] detector concept, particularly with its International Large Detector, as well as the CALICE particle-flow test-beam experiment. His line of work and research included but were not limited to:

      - Extensive use of Particle Flow software such as Mokka (simulation), Marlin (reconstruction) and PandoraAnalysis (analysis)
      - Jet energy bias and resolution studies [related talk]
      - Single particle response studies [talk]
      - Measuring and Modelling the Light Response of Pixelized Photon Detectors (PPDs) [related talk]

Above-average skills in computer programming and data analysis are a must in the field of Experimental High Energy Physics. In light of this, Carrasco has had his share of experience with ROOT, PAW, Mathematica, C++, Visual Basic and other programming languages and analysis tools. For his postdoc research, Carrasco had to rely heavily on writing code for ROOT, C++ and linux shell scripts. In the HEP Laboratory at KU, Carrasco was also involved in the use of precision electronics using Nuclear Instrumentation Modules (NIMs), Multi-Pixel Photon Counters(MPPCs), Charge to Digital Converters (QCDs), Time to Digital Converters (TDCs), Analog to Digital Converters (ADCs), Digital to Analog Converters (DACs), amplifiers, discriminators, scalers, etc.

PhD degree in Experimental High Energy Physics

Enrolled in February of 2005 and passed the written and oral doctorate qualifying exams by September of the same year (Electrodynamics, Quantum Mechanics, Statistical Mechanics and Classical Mechanics). These exams represent just one out of the four main requirements that CINVESTAV's Physics Department demands of their PhD candidates in order to obtain the degree. The other three being: 3 teaching assistantships in master's degree courses, taking 3 doctorate-level classes and finally, defending a thesis whose work is backed up by an international publication.

Carrasco, as a candidate to be incorporated into DØ's collaboration effort, spent most of 2006 and 2007 on site at DØ. Upon his return to CINVESTAV he had to take a 10-month leave of absence due to medical and personal reasons. Upon his return he spent a year fulfilling his pending requirements: he worked as a Teaching Assistant in Electrodynamics II, Quantum Mechanics II and Statistical Mechanics, and took the courses of Cosmology, Radiology and Dosimetry, and Relativistic Quantum Mechanics as well.

Free from all but one requirement, on November 25, 2009, he defended his PhD thesis titled "Measurement of the B⁰_s lifetime using the semileptonic decay channel B⁰_s $\to$ D^-_s $\mu$ ⁺ $\nu$ X" ^[2], which had been already published in Physical Review Letters back in December of 2006 (PRL 97, 241801). In it, and through the D0 Collaboration, Carrasco reported the most precise measurement of the B⁰_s lifetime to date: $\tau$ (B⁰_s) = 1.398 $\pm$ 0.044{stat}^+0.028_-0.025{syst}. For this measurement, 5176 reconstructed D^-_s $\mu$ ⁺ signal events were used, from 0.4 fb^-1 of data collected with the DØ detector during 2002-2004. This thesis was directed by CINVESTAV's Dr. Alberto Sánchez-Hernández.

M.Sc. degree in Physics

Received the Master's in Science degree with a specialty in Physics from Mexico City's Center for Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute (CINVESTAV) in January of 2005. The thesis work was done under the supervision of Dr. Alberto Sánchez-Hernández and it was titled "Measurement of the branching ratio B = Br( $\Lambda$ ⁺_c $\to$ $\Lambda$ ⁰ $\pi$ ⁺ $\pi$ ^- $\pi$ ⁺) / Br( $\Lambda$ ⁺_c $\to$ p K^- $\pi$ ⁺)" ^[3]. Fermilab's fixed target experiment FOCUS which involved $\gamma$ Be collisions was used, obtaining a world-average consistent measurement with high statistics. The result is shown below for comparison purposes, where C.E. stands for Combined Error.

B	Experiment(year)	Technology	Events	C.E.
0.65 $\pm$ 0.11 $\pm$ 0.12	CLEO(91)	e⁺e^-	289	0.16
0.82 $\pm$ 0.29 $\pm$ 0.27	E691(90)	$\gamma$ Be	44	0.40
0.94 $\pm$ 0.41 $\pm$ 0.13	NA32(90)	$\pi$ ⁺	10	0.43
0.61 $\pm$ 0.16 $\pm$ 0.04	ARGUS(88)	e⁺e^-	105	0.16
0.80 $\pm$ 0.05 $\pm$ 0.11	FOCUS(96)	$\gamma$ Be	1078	0.12

B. Sc. degree in Physics

Marco graduated in June 2002 from the Universidad de las Américas Puebla, often regarded as one of the most prestigious private universities in México, with a bachelor degree in Physics, having been the recipient of a full scholarship for the duration of his studies. H had the opportunity to do both theoretical and experimental work in statistical mechanics as a research assistant, and was a member of the college football team as a starting wide receiver for two seasons, as well as of the university's student council parliament coordinator in his senior year.

Detector Operation Experience

CALICE Test Beam

Collaborated with the CAlorimeter for LInear Collider Experiment (CALICE), as a shifter in the combined test beam program involving exposure of the combined prototype calorimeter system to real particle beams at Fermilab, during the runs of late April to early May of 2011. During these particular runs, both the SiW-ECAL and D-HCAL were tested, and subsequent data analysis performed to further check the output quality of the Particle Flow Algorithm programs.

Silicon Microstrip Tracker

Joined DØ's Silicon Microstrip Tracker group in March of 2006 working under Mike Kirby's tutelage. Was appointed as a SMT Expert soon thereafter and kept that status until early 2008. Acted as the primary on-call expert for one week in every five for an accumulated total of over 10 weeks during this period while serving as an on-call expert backup on any other week. SMT operations work involved but was not limited to:

      - HDI performance and efficiency studies, as well as recovery,
      - SMT raw examine script debugging,
      - Heartbeat Trigger script debugging,
      - SMT channel archivers management,
      - Collision hall controlled accesses for Interface Board and IB LV Power Supplies maintenance and replacement,
      - Sequencer Board testing and related Front End Busy studies,
      - SMT Crate Sync Loss studies,
      - Developed the Console Layout as well as online instructions for the SMT/CFT/STT/CTT to TRACKING shift merge,
      - SMT's shifter's page updating,
      - SMT shifter training.

Data Acquisition systems

Data Acquisition shifter at DØ with over 336 accumulated hours of experience, a full 6 week cycle over a period of 4 months. The DAQ shifter is a crucial element in the Control Room as he is in direct control on the data taking, or in other words, he is the sole caretaker of the overall data quality being recorded. Having this data is ultimately the Detector's and Collaboration's Raison d'être. As a SMT expert, Carrasco was able to take advantage of the time spent as a DAQ shifter to further improve the SMT's impact on data taking efficiency through debugging of the SMT's Alarm System. Also and under William Lee's supervision, he was directly involved in updating and improving instructions on the DAQ Shifter's Page.

Analog Front End Board testing

At DØ and during the summer of 2001, he was part of the team in charge of developing tools to test the newly acquired Analog Front End boards to be used in DØ's Central Tracking system for Run II. Under the supervision of Richard Jesik and Mike Matulik, Carrasco co-developed the Visual-Basic code used in the AFE board's Test Stand.

List of Publications

INSPIRE list of publications including recent submissions can be found here

List of all Physical Review publications can be found here

Selected Talks and Articles

Single Particle Response Studies using particle flow reconstruction on a simulation of the ILD detector at the ILC^[4]. University of Kansas High Energy Physics Seminar, September 20 2011, Lawrence, KS.

Measurement of the B⁰_s Lifetime Using Semileptonic Decays. V. M. Abazov et al. D0 Collaboration. Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 241801 (2006).

Preliminary lifetime measurement of the B⁰_s $\to$ D_sμX decay channel^[5]. American Physical Society April meeting 2005, Tampa, FL.

^ International Linear Collider website.
^ The PDF for this thesis can be found at DØ's PhD theses page.
^ Master's degree thesis: spanish version.
^ PDF of this Seminar presentation found here.
^ Abstract found at the APS meetings website.

[1] International Linear Collider website.

[2] The PDF for this thesis can be found at DØ's PhD theses page.

[3] Master's degree thesis: spanish version.

[4] PDF of this Seminar presentation found here.

[5] Abstract found at the APS meetings website.

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