Benjamin Hooberman

Primary Research Area
High Energy Physics

Associate Professor

(217) 318-1881

benhoob@illinois.edu

413 Loomis Laboratory

For More Information

Hooberman High Energy Physics Group at UIUC

Education

BA in Physics, Columbia University, 2005
MSc in Physics, University of California at Berkeley, 2007
PhD in Physics, University of California at Berkeley, 2009

Biography

Professor Hooberman is an experimental high energy physicist whose research focuses on using particle colliders to probe exotic new phenomena, including supersymmetric particles and extra dimensions of spacetime. He is particularly interested in using data from colliders to investigate and understand dark matter.

Professor Hooberman received a bachelor's degree in physics from Columbia University in 2005 and a Ph.D in physics from the University of California at Berkeley in 2009. From 2009-2014, he worked as a Research Associate at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory as a member of the CMS collaboration at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). He joined the University of Illinois in 2014 as an assistant professor.

His research began in the field of experimental cosmology, and focused on using measurements of the left-over radiation from the big bang (the "cosmic microwave background radiation") to better understand the evolution history of the universe. He transitioned to experimental particle physics in graduate school, where he searched for exotic new physics phenomena at the BaBar experiment at the Stanford Linear Accelerator, and performed detector research and development and physics simulation studies for a future high-energy lepton collider. As a research associate at Fermilab and a member of the CMS collaboration at the LHC, he searched for exotic new particles that are predicted by supersymmetric models and may explain the presence of dark matter in the universe. He continues these research topics as a member of the ATLAS collaboration at the LHC as an assistant professor at the University of Illinois.

Academic Positions

Affiliate Professor, Illinois Center for Advanced Studies of the Universe (ICASU), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2020-present
Assistant Professor, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2014-2020
Research Associate, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, 2009-2014
Graduate Student Research Assistant, University of California at Berkeley, 2005-2009
Undergraduate Researcher, Columbia University, 2003-2005
Associate Professor, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2020-present

Research Statement

In 2012, the Higgs boson was discovered at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in Switzerland, completing the standard model of particle physics and leading to the Nobel Prize in 2013. This discovery transformed our understanding of the building blocks of matter and the fundamental forces by explaining the origin of the masses of subatomic particles and the mechanism of electroweak symmetry breaking. However, the standard model is not capable of resolving key open questions and thus cannot be the final theory of nature. In particular, it cannot explain the origin of dark matter, which comprises about five times as much total mass in the universe as visible matter but whose nature is not understood. The standard model also predicts that the mass of the Higgs boson should be at the Planck scale, 16 orders of magnitude larger than the electroweak scale at which it was measured (the "hierarchy problem"). Understanding the nature of physics beyond the standard model and its potential connection to dark matter is among the highest priorities of the LHC physics program and the focus of my research.

Supersymmetry (SUSY) is an extension to the standard model that may explain the origin of dark matter while resolving the hierarchy problem and leading to a grand unified theory of nature. SUSY is a symmetry between fermions and bosons, which predicts that each particle in the standard model has an associated "super-partner" with spin differing by 1/2. These exotic new particles may be produced in the proton-proton collisions at the LHC, leading to a rich phenomenology of possible detector signatures. My primary research thrust is the search for supersymmetry in data collected by the ATLAS detector at the LHC. To do so, my research group analyzes LHC data using the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid, selects signal-like collision events, estimates rates for standard model background processes, and performs statistical analysis of the results. I have also played key leadership roles on both CMS and ATLAS that have provided me the opportunity to lead international teams of dozens of physicists in the search for supersymmetry at the LHC. My group also contributes to upgrades to the ATLAS charged particle tracking detector and trigger systems that will enhance the discovery reach in future data. A discovery would transform our understanding of the composition and fundamental laws of the universe.

Research Interests

Tracking and vertexing simulation studies to guide the design of the upgraded ATLAS detector
Machine learning for particle physics applications
Fast hardware-based tracking with the ATLAS Fast TracKer
Supersymmetry and the potential connection with dark matter
Experimental high-energy particle physics at the Large Hadron Collider