Steven M Errede

Professor

Ph.D., Physics, Ohio State University, 1981

Professor Steve Errede received his Ph. D. in physics from The Ohio State University in 1981. He did his undergraduate work at the University of Minnesota, where he was an electronics engineer in the Space Science Center. After working as a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Michigan (1981-1984), he joined the physics faculty at the University of Illinois as an assistant professor. He advanced to associate professor in 1989 and to professor in 1992.

In his experimental particle physics research, Professor Errede gained international recognition for his successful leadership role in the Collider Detector Facility experiment at Fermilab. Although primarily known as the collaboration that "discovered" the top quark, the CDF group also made the first precision measurements of the Z and W boson masses, the branching ratio of their respective cross sections in proton-antiproton scattering, and the observation of direct photon production in this process.

At the present, Professor Errede is part of the ATLAS experiment planned for the Large Hadron Collider being built at the Centre Européenne pour la Recherche Nucléaire (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland. This experiment will will search for the Higgs boson and supersymmetry. Professor Errede is involved in building the tile calorimeter detector unit for ATLAS.

In addition to his reputation as an outstanding researcher, Professor Errede is a truly exceptional teacher. Since coming to Urbana, he has guided over forty outstanding undergraduate students in independent research projects. He has explained that it was his own "immensely beneficial" research experience as an undergraduate that led him to make a personal commitment to do his best to provide similar experiences for his own students. The range of projects he has guided is remarkable--from the chaotic motion of a leaking water faucet, to materials physics issues related to elementary particle detection, to the use of laser interferometry to measure the Berry's phase.

Other Activities

Elementary Particle Experiment
The two main thrusts of high-energy physics research are to determine the form and strength of the fundamental interactions in nature and to determine the properties of the particles that enter into these interactions. The two main thrusts of elementary particle physics research are to determine the form and strength of the fundamental interactions in nature and to determine the properties of the particles that enter into these interactions. Our group presently works on experiments at Fermilab, Cornell University, and CERN. We participated in the discovery of the top quark and expect to observe time reversal symmetry violation in B-meson decays. In the future, we hope to observe the Higgs boson, thought to be responsible for the existence of mass.

Collider Detector at Fermilab
The superconducting particle accelerator at Fermilab is used to store beams of protons and antiprotons at 1000 GeV, the world’s highest energy. The CDF group has built a large detector to investigate the nature of the interactions that occur when these beams collide head-on. Precise measurements of the properties of the W boson, top quark, and other elementary particles are being made.

For more information:

Errede's personal website
Physics of Music/Musical Instruments (upper-level undergrads)
Physics of Music/Musical Instruments (Freshman "Discovery" course)

Honors and awards:

• Fellow, American Physical Society, 1995
• UIUC University Scholar, 1991-94
• Bruno Rossi Prize, 1989
• Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, 1985-89
• UIUC College of Engineering Outstanding Advisor, 1991

Selected Publications:

• A. Abulencia, et al. Search for B_s⁰ → m⁺m^- and B_d⁰ → m⁺m^- decays in p¯p collisions with CDF II. Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 221805-1-7 (2005). Erratum-ibid.95:249905 (2005).
• D. Acosta, et al. Measurement of partial widths and search for direct CP violation in D⁰ meson decays to K^-/K⁺ and π^-π⁺. Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 122001-1-7 (2005).
• D. Acosta, et al. Measurement of the lifetime difference between B_s mass eigenstates. Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 101803-1-7 (2005).
• D. Acosta, et al. First measurements of inclusive W and Z cross sections from Run II of the Fermilab Tevatron collider. Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 091803-1-7 (2005).
• D. Acosta, et al. Measurement of the t¯t production cross section in p¯p collisions at √s = 1.96 TeV using lepton + jets events with secondary vertex b-tagging. Phys. Rev. D 71, 052003-1-28 (2005).
• D. Acosta, et al. Measurement of the moments of the hadronic invariant mass distribution in semileptonic B decays. Phys. Rev. D 71, 051103-1-9 (2005).