Curriculum Vitae

David Silvermyr

Updated in Dec 2014

Work Address:

Lund University
Department of Physics, Div. of Particle Physics
Box 118, SE-22100 Lund, Sweden

Phone: +46 46 222 7674
Email: david.silvermyr@hep.lu.se

CURRENT POSITION :

Associate professor [Universitetslektor], Lund University, Sweden.

October, 2014 - present

Projects: Operation of the PHENIX Muon Identifier. Muon-id offline software contact, responsible for online monitoring. Primarily working on ALICE and particularly the ElectroMagnetic Calorimeter (EMCal+DCal), and TPC upgrade (electronics).

Physics goals: Interested in global observables measurements, and photon, jet, π⁰ and heavy flavor production in p+p and Pb+Pb collisions as studied with the ALICE central barrel. Future interest in forward physics (FoCal etc).

PREVIOUS/CURRENT POSITION :

Research staff [Wigner fellow (-Sep. 2005)], Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA.

September, 2003 - October, 2014 (on leave from October 2014)

Projects: Operation of the PHENIX Muon Identifier. Simulations, data production, offline and physics analysis. Contributions to the muon-id related offline reconstruction and trigger software, as well as calibrations and online monitoring. PHENIX Heavy Flavor Physics Working Group convenor July 2005 to Dec 2006. Primarily working on ALICE and particularly the ElectroMagnetic Calorimeter (EMCAL), and stationed at CERN from Dec 2006 to Mar 2009, and from Apr 2010 to Mar 2012.

Physics goals: study J/Ψ production for p+p, d+Au and Au+Au collisions; also in ultra-peripheral collisions, and with Cu+Cu collisions (2004-).
Interested in global observables measurements as studied with the ALICE EMCAL and TPC.

PREVIOUS POSITION :

Postdoctoral Research Associate, Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA.

April, 2002 - September, 2003

Projects: Commissioning and running of the PHENIX Muon Tracker electronics. Muon Tracker calibrations and online monitoring. Simulations, data production and analysis. Contributions to the muon-tracker related offline reconstruction software.

Physics analysis: study J/Ψ production in p+p and d+Au collisions.

EDUCATION

Undergraduate student 1993-1997; PhD student from 1997-2002

Lund University, Lund, Sweden.

M.Sc. June, 1997; Ph.D. February 2002

• PhD dissertation titled "Aspects of Hadron Production in High-Energy Heavy-Ion Collisions."
  

PREVIOUS RELATED WORK EXPERIENCE

June - August 1997, CERN Summer Student, CERN, Geneva, Switzerland.

Project: Using a maximum-likelihood method and performing secondary vertex reconstruction, I estimated B hadron lifetimes from the event topology in e+e- collisions at LEP.

RESEARCH GOALS AND ACHIEVEMENTS

My primary research interest is in the field of Relativistic Heavy Ion Physics. Within that field, my research has focussed upon the physics of Quark-Gluon Plasma formation, the physics of hot and dense nuclear matter, and particle production. I am looking forward to continuing to study several signatures of a possible phase transition in heavy ion collisions in the future, and characterizing the produced states of matter.

I have conducted research at three major relativistic heavy ion accelerator facilities: the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS), the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). and the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC). At the SPS on the WA98 experiment, I looked at charged particle production, especially the Δ⁺⁺ resonance, as a complementary means of determining the temperature of the hot and dense matter created in these collisions.

At RHIC on the PHENIX experiment, I worked on most parts, except the design, for the PHENIX Pad Chambers, which is a very successfull subsystem in PHENIX, incl. hardware, electronics, online and offline software and analysis. We used the Pad Chambers for the first centrality dependence study of charged particle multiplicity at RHIC, which was also the first PHENIX publication. Later, we completed a long overview paper on charged particle and transverse energy production at RHIC, including previous measurements at lower energies at e.g. AGS and SPS as well as predictions for LHC. Using the Pad Chambers, and in a parallell effort, performing simulations relevant for the upcoming experiments at LHC, we also tried looking into the physics of coherent peripheral interactions at relativistic heavy-ion colliders, which is a field I have a continued interest and involvement in.

This work, and the work on WA98, was done mainly while I was a PhD student from October 1997 to early 2002. After coming to Los Alamos in April 2002, I worked on the Muon Tracker subsystem in PHENIX and shifted my focus from studying global event physics to rare and heavy probes, such as J/Ψ. When I joined, we installed and commissioned the North Muon Tracker, which has performed well in subsequent runs, as we start to measure J/Ψ's in the thousands, also thanks to the improved performance of the RHIC accelerator.

J/Ψ is interesting since the suppression of different heavy quarkonium states at different temperatures or energy densities is predicted as one of the signals of a potential phase transition of nuclear matter from confined to deconfined quarks and gluons, the so-called quark-gluon plasma phase. However, other competing nuclear effects will also affect the overall charmonium production in Au+Au collisions. Thus it is very important to systematically measure open charm and J/Ψ production in p+p, d+Au, and Au+Au collisions to fully understand the underlying physics and disentangle the various competing effects.

After moving to Oak Ridge, I continued on this physics analysis path. We completed papers for the Run-3 (2003) d+Au and p+p data and more recently also the Run-4 (2004) Au+Au, Run-5 (2005) Cu+Cu, and p+p data. After joining ORNL, I shifted my hardware focus from Muon Tracker operations to Muon Identifier and trigger-related activities. With the improved shielding, the Muon Identifier had its first chance to perform really well in 2004.
From 2007 I mostly focused on physics opportunities at LHC and the ALICE experiment. For this latter part, I was the principal investigator (PI) for an ORNL seed money proposal ($125k for FY05 and FY06) regarding the readout electronics for the ALICE-EMCal which included a beam test at FNAL (Nov 2005), with pre-production modules. After I relocated to CERN, we have also had beam tests at CERN SPS and PS (fall 2007 and 2010) as well as prepared the infrastructure (all cabling etc) for the EMCAL support structure, the so-called CalFrame. ORNL also has the overall responsibility for the readout electronics which was produced and tested in several passes in 2008 to 2011. The first four SuperModules were installed in 2009 and six more to complete the baseline EMCal in early 2011. A set of six additional somewhat smaller SuperModules were produced for the so-called DCal, which was installed in 2013 and 2014.
I am also very interested in the upgrade projects for sPHENIX at RHIC, and for ALICE at LHC.

RESEARCH STAYS

Including visits of one month's length or more.

• Oct 1999- Oct 2000: Brookhaven National Laboratory, US. Contact: Dr. Jeffery. T. Mitchell.

• April - May 2001: Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel. Contact: Prof. Itzhak Tserruya.

• July 2003/4: University of Colorado, US. Contact: Prof. James L. Nagle.

• April - May 2005: Ecole Polytechnique, France. Contact: Prof. Michel Gonin.

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Lund University undergraduate courses (Graduate student teaching assistant )

• 1998-1999: Physics laboratory - Electrodynamics/Electromagnetism

GRANTS

While being a student in Lund, I received several research and travel grants from Lund University, the Swedish Research Council and the Royal Physiographic Society, a total in excess of 40 000 SEK. I was also awarded a scholarship from the Swedish-American Foundation, and the Wallenberg Foundation for 105 000 SEK in 1999 to cover extra costs for a one-year research stay at BNL starting from the fall 1999.

1 USD equal approx. 7.50 SEK. (July 2004)

I have also received financial support from NORDITA and the organizers of Quark Matter '97, 2001 and 2002, and RHIC'98.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS (incl. in my PhD thesis)

L. Carlén et al., Nucl. Instr. & Meth. A 431, (1999) 123-133
A large-acceptance spectrometer for tracking in a high multiplicity environment, based on space point measurements and high resolution time-of-flight

M. Aggarwal et al. (WA98 Coll.), Physics Letters B 477, (2000) 37-44
Δ⁺⁺ production in 158 A GeV Pb+Pb interactions at the CERN SPS

K. Adcox et al., Nucl. Instr. & Meth. A 497/2-3, (2002) 263-293
Construction and Performance of the PHENIX Pad Chambers

K. Adcox et al. (PHENIX Coll.), Phys. Rev. Lett 86, (2001) 3500-3505
Centrality Dependence of Charged Particle Multiplicity in Au+Au Collisions at √s_NN = 130 GeV

A largely complete publication listing can be found on INSPIRE: http://inspirehep.net/search?p=FIND+AUTHOR+SILVERMYR

PHENIX Physics Publication Work:

001: Centrality Dependence of Charged Particle Multiplicity in Au+Au Collisions at √s_NN = 130 GeV; Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, (2001) 3500-3505; Preprint: nucl-ex/0012008

019:Systematic Studies of the Centrality and √s_NN Dependence of the dNch/dη and dEt/dη in Heavy Ion Collisions at Mid-rapidity; Phys. Rev. C. 71, 034908 (2005); Preprint: nucl-ex/0409015

038: J/Ψ Production and Nuclear Effects for d+Au and p+p Collisions at √s_NN = 200 GeV; Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 012304 (2006); Preprint: nucl-ex/0507032

069: J/Ψ production versus transverse momentum and rapidity in p+p collisions at √s_NN = 200 GeV; Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 232002 (2007); Preprint: hep-ex/0611020

071: J/Ψ Production in √s_NN = 200 GeV Cu+Cu Collisions; Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 082301 (2008); Preprint: arXiv:0801.0220

081: Photoproduction of J/Ψ and high-mass dielectrons in ultraperipheral Au+Au collisions at √s_NN = 200 GeV; Physics Letters B 679, 321 (2009); Preprint: arXiv:0903.2041

I am, or have been, a member of the following six PHENIX Internal Review Committees:

028: Absence of Suppression in Particle Production at Large Transverse Momentum in √s_NN = 200 GeV d+Au Collisions; Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, (2003) 072303; Preprint: nucl-ex/0306021

035: Nuclear Modification Factors for Hadrons at Forward and Backward Rapidities in d+Au Collisions at √s_NN = 200 GeV; Phys. Rev. Lett. 94 (2005) 082302. Preprint: nucl-ex/0411054

ALICE Physics Publication Work:

9678: ; Studying strangeness and baryon production mechanisms through angular correlations between charged Ξ baryons and identified hadrons in pp collisions at √s= 13 TeV ; Preprint: 2308.16706

054: First proton--proton collisions at the LHC as observed with the ALICE detector: measurement of the charged particle pseudorapidity density at sqrt(s) = 900 GeV; Eur. Phys. J. C (2010) 65: 111-125; Preprint: 0911.5430

CONFERENCES

PHENIX Talks from 2000 and onwards can be found on
http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/phenix/WWW/publish/silvermy/
Seminars, meetings (collaboration or otherwise) etc. are not listed here.

DNP 2000, Williamsburg, USA, 4th to the 7th of October, 2000
Contributed talk.

Quark Matter 2001 , New York, USA, 15th to the 20th of January, 2001
Poster presentation.

ICPAQGP 2001, Jaipur, India, 26th to the 30th of November, 2001
Contributed talk.

Hirschegg 2002, Hirschegg, Austria, 13th to the 19th of January, 2002
Invited talk ("Global observables in the PHENIX Experiment")

Quark Matter 2002, Nantes, France, 18th to the 24th of July, 2002
Poster presentation.

Transverse Dynamics at RHIC, Brookhaven National Laboratory, USA, 5th to the 8th of March, 2003
Invited talk ("Global observables in the PHENIX Experiment").

APS 2003, Philadelphia, USA, 5th to the 8th of April, 2003
Contributed talk.

CIPANP 2003, New York City, USA, 19th to the 24h of May, 2003
Invited talk ("J/ψ and open charm measurements at RHIC/PHENIX").

Quark Matter 2004, Oakland, USA, 11th to the 17th of January, 2004
Poster presentation.

INPC2004, Göteborg, Sweden, 27th of June to the 2nd of July, 2004
Contributed talk.

DNP'04, Chicago, USA, 27th to the 30th of October, 2004
Contributed talk.

SESAPS2004, Oak Ridge, USA, 11th to the 13th of November, 2004
Contributed talk.

Quark Matter 2005, Budapest, Hungary, 4th to the 9th of August, 2005
Poster presentation.

DNP'05 (Joint APS and JPS meeting), Kapalua/Maui, USA, 18th to the 22nd of September, 2005
Invited plenary talk ("Heavy flavor and direct photon measurements at RHIC").

DECO'2006: Critical point and onset of deconfinement , Florence, Italy, 3rd to the 6th of July, 2006
Invited talk ("Review on J/psi as a signal of deconfinement").

Trento workshop on photoproduction , Trento, Italy, 15th to the 19th of January, 2007
Invited talk ("‘Photo-production’ of J/Ψ and high mass e+e- pairs in Ultra-Peripheral Au+Au Collisions").

Bormio'2008: International Winter Meeting on Nuclear Physics , Bormio, Italy, 20th to the 26th of January, 2008
Invited talk ("Selected results from PHENIX: focus on electromagnetic probes").

Diffraction 2008 , La Londe-les-Maures, France, 9th to the 14th of September, 2008
Contributed talk.

DNP'09 (Joint APS and JPS meeting), Waikoloa, USA, 13th to the 17th of October, 2009
Contributed talk.

Hard Probes 2010, Eilat, Israel, 10th to the 15th of October, 2010
Contributed talk.

NCNP2011, Stockholm, Sweden, 13th to the 17th of June, 2011
Invited plenary talk ("The Heavy-Ion Collider Era - from RHIC to LHC").

CIPANP2012, St. Petersburg, FL, USA, May 29th to the 3rd of June, 2012
Invited parallel talk ("Measurements of Global Observables from RHIC to LHC").

LLWI2014, Lake Louise, Canada, 16th to the 22nd of February, 2014
Invited talk ("ALICE Upgrade").

RHICAGS2014, Brookhaven National Laboratory, USA, 17th to the 20th of June, 2014
Invited talk ("ALICE Upgrade Program").

SQM2016, Berkeley, USA, 27th of June to 1st of July, 2016
Invited plenary talk ("ALICE Upgrade Program").