Mats A. Selen
Professor of Physics
Professor Mats Selen earned a B.S. in
physics from the University of Guelph (1982), an M.Sc. in physics from Guelph (1983), and an M.A. in physics from Princeton
University in 1985. He received his Ph.D. in physics from Princeton in 1989. He was a research associate at the Cornell Electron
Storage Ring (CESR) at Cornell University from 1989-1993. He
joined the Department of Physics at Illinois in 1993 as an assistant professor, was promoted to associate professor in 1997, and
to full professor in 2001.
Professor Selen is an extraordinary teacher, and his decision to accept a university position, rather than to remain a permanent staff researcher at a major particle physics facility, was motivated by his commitment to science education. Since coming to Illinois, he has been a prime mover behind the massive curriculum revision of the calculus-based introductory physics courses (Physics 211-214), and he was the first lecturer in the new sequence. He developed an undergraduate "discovery" course where freshmen create their own physics demonstrations—designed for grade school children—to introduce then to the fun and excitement of physics. He also started the Physics Van, our department's award-winning community outreach program and is a regular on local morning television as "The Whys Guy."
Already an international leader in experimental particle physics, Professor Selen has made significant contributions to four distinct research areas: (1) the measurement of the D* branching ratios and an analysis of D* mesons that set a new reference standard; (2) study of the charm quark and contributions to current understanding of charmed particles and their decays; (3) radiative and hadronic D decays; and (4) innovations in particle identification and data acquisition, including the invention of an entirely new method, Cherenkov correlated timing (CCT), which can separate from K mesons, up to momenta of 4 GeV/c. This novel idea has been successfully tested at the KEK high energy physics laboratory in Japan.
Profressor Selen's recognized expertise in data acquisition led to his being placed in charge of the design and construction of the event trigger for the upgraded CLEO detector at CESR.
Research Areas: experimental high-energy physics; decays of the charmed quark.
Description of Current Research
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. 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.
Study of Heavy Flavors at the Cornell Electron Storage Ring (CESR)
We use the CLEO detector at CESR to study the properties of the lepton and of particles containing the b and c quarks.
These studies allow us to perform stringent tests of the standard model of the fundamental interactions. This is the
modern equivalent of the atomic physics experiments performed early this century to test quantum mechanics. We are
participating in a major upgrade of the CLEO detector, which will effect dramatic improvements in the experiment's
resolution and statistical precision. One of our goals is to determine whether or not the standard model can
account for the small matter-antimatter asymmetry present in our universe.
CLEO Experiment at CESR
The CLEO experiment at the Cornell electron positron storage ring (CESR) studies the properties of the bottom
and charmed quarks and the tau lepton. The primary goals of these studies are: (1) the understanding of the
origin of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa (CKM) mixing matrix, for which no dynamical theory exists; (2)
understanding of time reversal symmetry violation, which appears to be a necessary prerequisite to the
observed matter-antimatter asymmetry of the universe; and (3) tests of the "standard model" of
particle physics, whose very precise predictions have been tested very accurately, but which, nonetheless,
is known not to be correct. Deviations from these predictions will tell us where the flaw lies.
Recent Publications
Rosner, JL, et al. Observation of the hc(1P1) state charmonium.
Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 102003 (2005).
Li, et al. Measurement of the branching fractions for J/
y®l+l.
Phys. Rev. D. 71, 111103-1-5 (2005).
Coan, TE, et al. Weiss-Zumino current and the structure of the decay t®
K-p-K+nt.
Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 232001-1-5 (2005).
Briere, et al. Observation of thirteen new exclusive multi-body hadronic decays of the y(2S).
Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 062001-1-5 (2005).
Adams, NE, et al. Observation of 1-0- final states from (2S) decays and e+e- annihilation.
Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 012005-1-5 (2005).
Adams, GS, et al. Measurement of the muonic branching fractions of the narrow Upsilon resonances.
Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 012001-1-5 (2005).
Honors and Awards
- Fellow, American Physical Society, 2006
- Xerox Senior Faculty Research Award, University of Illinois College of Engineering, 2002
- Collins Award for Innovative Teaching, University of Illinois College of Engineering, 2001
- Teaching Excellence Award, University of Illinois College of Engineering, 1998
- Everitt Award for Teaching Excellence, University of Illinois College of Engineering, 1997
- Honorary Knight of St. Pat, University of Illinois College of Engineering, 1997
- Cottrell Scholar, Research Corporation, 1996
- Xerox Junior Faculty Research Award, University of Illinois College of Engineering, 1995
- National Science Foundation Presidential Faculty Fellow, 1995
- Fellow, A.P. Sloan Foundation, 1995
- Outstanding Junior Investigator, U.S. Deptartment of Energy, 1994
