The Minerva Masterclass Review

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Thyer, & Vera Zimanyine Horvath

Our Course of Action1. Initial Download & Use

2. Group-wide Meetingsa. Peter Watkins & Mark Stocktonb. Monika Wielersc. Gron Jones

3. Individual Subcommittee Meetings.

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MINERVAIntroductional Booklet for Teachers

Subcommittee members: Tom Lambert, Francesco Mezzanotte, & Vera Zimanyine Horvath

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I. Particles

A. Standard model of fundamental particles B. Decays

II. Atlas

A. Part of LHC B. Structure of detector C. Identfying particles

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III. Minerva/Atlantis

A. How to access the programB. Snapshots of the five examplesC. How to read diagrams

Teachers Manual.pdf

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SUBCOMMITTEE ON STUDENT ACTIVITIES

Committee members: Maria Shamoun, Rosana Marques, & Logan Chalfant

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Objective: We wish to use Atlas Event Data and the Minerva Program as a platform for engaging students in modern physics exercises. The Miverva software can thus bridge classroom theory and current research.

I. Theoretical introduction and practical exercises

A. Conservation of momentumMeasurement of particle momentum exercise.docx

B. Invariant massMeasurement of invariant mass.docx

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A. Introduction to Particle Physics

B. How to interpret the tracks

C. Exercises Particle number, track height and width, particle type, etc

II. Particle Basics

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III. Indirect ObservationA. Group/class discussion on direct v. indirect

observation.B. Propose analogous problem. (Ie: What

evidence is there that your anatomy includes the organ known as the ‘heart’?)

C. Discuss the evidence the Atlas detector uses to determine particle charge, type, momentum, etc.

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IV. Momentum ConservationA. Propose analogous problem. (Ie: What is the

momentum of a loaded gun before and after it is fired? What does this imply about the individual momentums of the gun and bullet ?)

B. Apply this to collision and decay momentums.C. What do inconsistencies imply?

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V. Data analysisA. Current method: Given worksheet, hand calculations

B. Proposed method: Create Excel file

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COMPARISON SUBCOMMITTEE

MINERVA VS. HYPATIA

Subcommitte members: Ingrid Loncq De Jong-Versluijs, Dimitris Roubos

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I. THE PROCEDURE OF COMPARISON

A. We tried to download and install both programs.

B. We used both programs.

C. We used both program’s support materials (web- site e-manuals).

D. We compared how each program could be adapted to the classroom.

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II. VERSIONS A. HYPATIA

1. v2.3

2. sv-v2.3 (simplified version)

3. Demo v2.3.1

4. MDE v2.3

B. MINERVA

1. 4 versions with different number of events

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III. WEB SITEA. On HYPATIA ‘s website we found the

following:

1. prerequisite knowledge of physics

2. Links to download the program

B. On MINERVA’s website we found the following:

1. prerequisite knowledge of physics

2. Links to download the program

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IV. USER INTERFACEA. The user interface of both programs initially

struck as complicated. However, the more we used it, the more potential we discovered.

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2 windows

4 windows

CANVAS WINDOWS

FIRST difference

WE CAN’T FIND 3D HISTROGRAMS ON HYPATIA

SECOND difference

Track on electromagnetic calorimeter

TRACK MOMENTA WINDOW

INVARIANT MASS WINDOW

The Invariant Mass Window is the main analysis window of HYPATIA. You can see the chosen (by user) tracks of each event and values of theirs main physical quantities (momentum etc.). For each event the invariant (or transverse) masses of combinations of chosen particles are automatically calculated and displayed.

EDUCATIONAL MATERIAL MINERVA

Worksheets with instructions Power point presentation with additional helpful

instructions

HYPATIA Instructions and

classified group events per particle kind on the internet site

Exercises

HELP Help in both applications is thorough –

detailed but it could be enriched with more examples – illustrations.

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CONCLUSIONS If you want to understand the physics behind the

programs you need a lot explanations. But…. Pupils do not learn much physics from using the

programs. They only learn how to recognize a pattern.

It is not clear to us why there are two almost similar programs, Hypatia and Minerva.

CONCLUSIONS Both programmes require elementary – basic

knowledge of physics’ particle physics as well as some fundamental knowledge of the functional principles of detectors.

Pupils in Greek schools , even those of advanced level, do not possess the above knowledge.

Consequently, it is practically impossible to use this application in the Greek school.

What can be done is to introduce this programme to physics teachers in the frame of a general familiarization of teachers with the experiments prepared in CERN.

Both are very helpful programmes in familiarizing a physics pupil with detectors used in CERN. Z

WE WOULD LIKE TO THANK THE FOLLOWING

PEOPLE:Peter Watkins Mark StocktonMonika Wielers

Mick StorrGron Jones

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