MINDANAO RADIATION PHYSICS Center

History

The High Energy Physics (HEP) group of MSU-IIT was founded by Dr. Angelina Bacala in the 90s through its active linkages with Japan’s High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK) in Tsukuba, Japan, and with Prof. Hitoshi Miyata of the HEP Laboratory of Niigata University. In 1995, Prof. Kazuo Abe from KEK made possible a donation of Nuclear Instrument Module (NIM) and Camac Modules which were considered as a standard instrumentation used in high energy experiments. Through these equipments, MSU-IIT with its Graduate Program in Physics was able to mentor students in their research in Cosmic- Ray Flux Measurements. And with the support from CHED-MAEP, it has produced about 15 MS-Graduates many of whom has pursued or had already their PhD in Physics abroad.

SUBSEQUENT COLLABORATION

In 1998, MSU-IIT HEP joined the Asian Committee for Future Accelerators (ACFA) Working Group. Its involvement in the Time Projection Chamber Technology R&D studies paved the way to a wider collaboration with other institutions like Carleton University in Canada, Max Planck Institute

(MPI) in Munich, Germany, and others. It was through this involvement that MSU-IIT HEP represented the country as a collaborator in the Asian Committee for Future Accelerators (ACFA) - Linear Collider Working Group. Currently added to its linkage was with Laboratoire de Physique de Clermont of Université Clermont Auvergne, being initiated in 2016 by Dr. Jan Mickelle Maratas and where MSU-IIT HEP Group appeared in many journal publications.

ITS FACULTY

MSU-IIT HEP has also inked a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) of cooperation with the HEP Group of Niigata University, Niigata, Japan in March 1997. Since then, a number of exchanged visits of some faculty members from both universities have greatly helped in strengthening the research capabilities of the Physics department. Recently, Dr. Salasa A. Nawang, Dr. Jan Mickelle V. Maratas and Dr. Catherine Therese J. Quiñones (in 2007, 2016 and 2017, respectively) re-joined the Physics department of MSU-IIT and added to the manpower of the HEP group.

CURRENT STATUS

With MSU-IIT now expanding its research infrastructure and priority, MSU-IIT HEP group has transformed into what is now called as the Mindanao Radiation Physics Center (MRPC). The center has extended HEP researches to include Radiation-related and Medical Physics studies, while maintaining its original direction in High Energy Physics Researches. MSU-IIT’s standing in HEP today is still unique in the country. To the best of our knowledge, it is the only university in the country having 25+ years of experience in HEP and is also the only university

in the country with experts in HEP [see individual C.V. of Dr. Bacala, Dr. Nawang and Dr. Maratas for details]. Such impression is supported by the fact that MSU-IIT is the only HEP laboratory in the country listed by the Particle Data Group (PDG) of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), California, USA (see: http://pdg.lbl.gov/2019/html/inst-2014.pdf). In terms of HEP publications, MSU-IIT has co-signed 100+ publications in high-impact journals (see complete list here: <http://inspirehep.net/search?p=Mindanao+State+University>). In terms of

Technical Design Reports on detectors, physics, and accelerator design of future colliders, MSU-IIT HEP group has contributed in the International Linear Collider initiative (see ILC TDR reports and Global Large Detector design: arXiv:1306.6327, arXiv:1306.6352, arXiv:1306.6328, arXiv:1306.6329 and arXiv:physics/0607154) and is now also contributing in the formulation of the physics case for the proposed Future Circular Collider (FCC) of CERN.

Research Activities

2020

1. Partial reconstruction of the decay B^0_s→φ(K+K-)η’(π+π-η) at a future high-luminosity Z-factory

Proponent/s

2. Monte Carlo Simulation Study on the effect of the Magnetic Field on Microbeam and Broadbeam geometry in Radiotherapy

Proponent/s

Publications

1. “Precision measurement of the \Xi_cc^++ mass”, LHCb collaboration, R. Aaij, et al. (including J. Maratas), Journal of High Energy Physics, Volume 2020, Issue 02 doi:10.1007/JHEP02(2020)049, 7 February 2020

2. “Measurement of the \psi(2S) production cross-sections in proton-proton collisions at \sqrt(s) = 7 and 8 TeV”, LHCb collaboration, R. Aaij, et al. (including J. Maratas), European Physical Journal C, Volume 80, Article No. 185, doi: 10.1140/epjc/s10052-020-7638-y, 28 February 2020

3. “Measurement of the \eta_c(1S) production cross-sections in pp collisions at \sqrt(s) = 13 TeV”, LHCb collaboration, R. Aaij, et al. (including J. Maratas), European Physical Journal C, Volume 80, Article No. 191, doi: 10.1140/epjc/s10052-020-7733-0, 2 March 2020