John A. J. Matthews, Professor Ph.D. 1971, University of Toronto

Recent Cosmic Ray Notes/Talks:

[0] Milagro Tank Temperature Study: w/ and w/o Tank Insulation , Auger North Meeting, LPNHE, Paris, March 13-14, 2008

[1] Evidence for Correlation of the Highest Energy Cosmic Rays and Extra-galactic Objects (AGNs)? , 23rd Annual New Mexico Symposium, NRAO, Socorro, Oct 19, 2007

..... Correlation of the Highest Energy Cosmic Rays with Nearby Extragalactic Objects, Science, 9 November 2007

[2] Temperature Measurements in a Milagro Outrigger Detector, Auger North Design Meeting, Karlsruhe, Feb 26-28, 2007 / Auger North R&D Meeting, Colorado State University, February 12-13, 2007

[3] Power Laws and the Cosmic Ray Energy Spectrum, published in Astroparticle Physics (2007)

[4] Search for Correlations between Nearby AGNs and Ultra-high Energy Cosmic Rays, published in Astroparticle Physics (2007)

[5] Lessons Learned from Milagro Outrigger Detectors, Auger North R&D Meeting, University of Colorado, February 10, 2006

[6] Status Report on Fluorescence Detector Xmax Composition Analysis, Auger Collaboration Meeting, Malargue Argentina, November 16, 2005

[7] Highest Energy Cosmic Rays: Probe of the Extreme Universe, colloquium, Texas Tech University, January 29, 2004

[8] Cosmic Ray Composition and Muon Counters, talk, Telescope Array Collaboration meeting, October 25, 2003

..... Are We Serious About Cosmic Ray Composition?, updated talk, Auger South Upgrade Meeting, Karlsruhe, Germany, Feb 24-25, 2005

[9] Atmospheric Monitoring with Tunable Lasers, talk, T.A. Japan Meeting, January 29, 2004

[10] How Well Do We Know Rayleigh Cross Sections?, Auger GAP-2003-059, August 20, 2003

[11] APF Light Sources for the Auger Southern Observatory, poster, 28th ICRC, July 31 - August 7, 2003

[12] Atmospheric Monitoring Systems for the Auger Southern Observatory, talk, Astroparticles and Atmosphere Workshop, College de France, Paris, May 2003

.... Monitoring the Aerosol Phase Function with the Coihueco Fluorescence Detector, talk, Astroparticles and Atmosphere Workshop, College de France, Paris, May 2003

[13] APF Light Sources for the Auger Southern Observatory, May 2003, 28th ICRC, July 31 - August 7, 2003

[14] Composition below 10^19 eV, talk, US Auger Collaboration Meeting, Colorado State University, February 28, 2003

[15] Optical Relative Calibration and Stability Monitoring for the Auger Fluorescence Detector, 29th ICRC, Pune India 2005

.... Optical Calibration of the Auger Fluorescence Telescopes, Auger GAP_02_029, SPIE Conference "Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation", August 22-28, 2002 __(Revised: Aug 20, 2002)

.... Optical Calibration of the Auger Fluorescence Telescopes, SPIE Conference TALK, August 22, 2002

[16] Proposal for a Remote Vertical Laser System for the Auger Fluorescence Detector, June 25, 2002; updated to ``Central Laser Facility'', International Workshop on Calibration and Atmospheric Monitoring for the Fluorescence Detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory, Gran Sasso Laboratory, January 9-12, 2003

[17] AAS talk: New Results on the Highest Energy Cosmic Rays , June 3, 2002

.... UPDATED talk with latest HiRes data , LANL Colloquium, October 17, 2002

[18] An Absolute Calibration of the Bay-4 Telescope using Remote Laser Shots, Auger GAP-2002-010, March 16, 2002

[19] Klett Inversion of Simulated LIDAR Signals, Auger GAP-2001-051, October 15, 2001

[20] Lessons from a Toy LIDAR Simulation, Auger GAP-2001-046, October 1, 2001

[21] ICRC2001: Atmospheric Monitoring for the Auger Fluorescence Detector -- talk, August 1, 2001

.... ICRC2001: Atmospheric Monitoring for the Auger Fluorescence Detector, Auger GAP-2001-029, May 25, 2001

[22] Air Fluorescence Detector Site Elevation Issues, Auger GAP-2000-054, December 20, 2000

[23] Fluorescence Detector Optical Calibration Source Test, Auger GAP-2000-050, October 16, 2000

[24] Fluorescence Detector Optical Calibration and Atmospheric Monitoring for the Pierre Auger Experiment, Auger GAP-2000-033, June 30, 2000/Rev. January 5, 2001

[25] Analysis of Time Variant Molecular Atmosphere for the Purpose of Air Fluorescence Measurements, Auger GAP-1999-037, October 11, 1999

[26] A Preliminary Analysis of the Optical Properties of the Atmosphere in Millard County, Auger GAP-1999-026, July 26, 1999

[27] ICRC1999: OG 4.5.6 Time Variation of the Vertical Profile of the Atmosphere ..., May 14, 1999

....ICRC1999: OG 4.5.18 Measurement of the Aerosol Differential Scattering Cross Section ..., May 14, 1999

....ICRC1999: OG 4.5.19 Atmospheric Monitoring for Transmission Corrections ..., May 14, 1999

[28] Proposed Atmospheric Monitoring for the HiRes Experiment, December 1998

[29] The Standard Atmosphere, the Moliere Radius, and Ground Array Systematic Errors, Auger GAP-1998-002, January 1998

[30] Study of Ground Array Performance using Parametric Showers, Auger GAP-1997-071, November 1997

[31] Notes on the Biggest Showers, Auger GAP-1997-019, April 1997

[32] Back of the Envelope Insights into Shower Energy Measurements by Sparse Ground Arrays, Auger GAP-1997-018, April 1997

My present research focuses on the study of the highest energy cosmic rays with the Pierre Auger experiment in Argentina. Part of my Auger research involves R\&D on atmospheric monitoring and detector calibration for fluorescence experiments with the High Resolution Fly's Eye experiment in Utah. Atmospheric monitoring uses various light sources including laser beams. I am a co-leader of the atmospheric monitoring and fluorescence detector calibration group in the Pierre Auger experiment. The next generation of ultra-high energy experiments, using fluorescence light from the extensive air showers in the atmosphere to measure the properties of the cosmic rays, will need to measure the air showers at unprecedented distances, 20 to 40km, from the fluorescence detectors. Thus the success of these experiments hinges on reliable atmospheric monitoring as well as precision fluorescence detector calibration.

Previous to this my research focused on the collider physics program at Fermilab and in particular the CDF experiment, and the the study of the top quark and the search for the Higgs boson. Both top and Higgs physics depend on the efficient detection of b-quark jets using a silicon vertex detector; I have been a leader in CDF and a world expert in this technology.

Recent results include major discoveries with the Mark II and CDF experiments. The Mark II experiment emphasized the first measurements of the properties of the Z vector boson using high energy colliding beams. The most significant result of this experiment was the first measurement of the number of types of low mass neutrinos to be 3. Thus we now know that there are only three types of low mass neutrinos: , and . The CDF experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron collider is one of the two highest energy collider experiments until the LHC begins operation in 2006. Thus the primary focus of the CDF experiment has been the search for new physics including new quarks. One example is our recent discovery of the t-quark. The t-quark is unusual in that it is much more massive than any previous fundamental fermion! Our measured mass of the t-quark is 176.1 +/- 6.6 GeV/c² or almost the same mass as a gold nucleus! As elementary fermions appear to group in generations, where a generation consists of 2 quarks, one lepton and one neutrino, the t-quark discovery and the measurement of 3 generations of neutrinos, could imply that we have discovered all the fundamental fermions!

Sample Publications:

Observation of Top Quark Production in Collisions, with the CDF Collaboration, F. Abe, et al, Phys. Rev. Lett. 74, 2626-2631 (1995)

Evidence for Top Quark Production in Collisions at TeV, with the CDF Collaboration, F. Abe, et al, Phys. Rev. D50, 2966-3026 (1994)

Measurements of Z Boson Resonance Parameters in Annihilation, with Mark II Collaboration, G. S. Abrams et al, Phys. Rev. Lett. 63, 2173 (1989)

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Director, New Mexico Center for Particle Physics

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J.A.J. Matthews
Updated regularly ...