About
I am an Assistant Professor of Physics at Brandeis University. My research is focused on particle physics at the energy frontier. As part of the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider, our group performs measurements exploring the electroweak sector of standard model of particle physics and searches for new physics beyond the standard model. We are also interested in the design, construction, and commissioning of state-of-the-art particle detectors. Our group members perform research at Brandeis, CERN, BNL, and SLAC.
Before joining Brandeis University, I was a Research Associate at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (2017-2021). I received my Ph.D. in physics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2017. I obtained my B.S. degrees in Physics and Applied Mathematics from the Illinois Institute of Technology in 2011.
Open Positions: We are always looking for motivated postdocs, graduate students, and undergraduate students interested in experimental particle physics. Please send an email with your CV. Prospective graduate students: please apply to the Brandeis PhD Program and include my name in your application.
News
August 2025
Joy presented a poster on her work on DarkQuest at SciFest XIV at Brandeis. She was awarded the Provost's Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship to work on DarkQuest.
July 2025
Aram presented an invited talk on "Multiboson physics" at the US ATLAS Summer Workshop.
July 2025
Daniel and Aram were featured in a Symmetry Magazine article. More information on this interesting result can be found in our ATLAS Physics Briefing.
June 2025
Aram and Mike traveled to CERN for the ATLAS MBL workshop and ATLAS week. Daniel and Mike presented at the MBL workshop. We also found Todd at CERN.
June 2025
Aram visited SLAC and gave an FPD seminar.
May 2025
Congratulations to Dr. Todd Zenger! Brandeis Commencement 2025.
May 2025
Mike was featured in a Brandeis news article discussing his DOE SCGSR fellowship award.
May 2025
Congratulations to Sam and D on successfully defending their Senior Honors Theses: "Sensitivity to longitudinal vector boson scattering in W±W±jj at future hadron colliders" and "Searching for Dark Matter with DarkQuest Experiment", respectively.
April 2025
Aram visited Texas Tech University and gave a colloquium.
March 2025
Daniel presented an invited talk on Triboson ane VBS results at Moriond EW 2025.
January 2025
Abdullah received the US-ATLAS ATC program award to work on ITk Strips at BNL.
Research
Electroweak and Higgs physics
LHC data are analyzed to probe the Standard Model of particle physics and to search for hints of new physics with the ATLAS detector. The work also focuses on jet energy scale calibration and charged particle track reconstruction.
ATLAS Phase II Inner Tracker (ITk)
Construction, Integration, and Commissioning of the ITk Strips detector at Brandeis, BNL, and CERN.
4D Tracking at HL-LHC and Future Colliders
Utilizing Pico-Second Timing Information to Enhance Track Reconstruction at the High-Luminosity LHC and Future Colliders.
Dark Matter searches
Accelerator-based search for dark matter and dark sector particles with DarkQuest at Fermilab.
Physics at Future Colliders
Studies of the Physics Potential with W and Z Boson Pair Production at Future Hadron and Muon Colliders.
People
Current Members
Daniel Camarero Munoz
Postdoctoral Fellow
Line Delagrange
Postdoctoral Fellow
Michael Cardiff
Graduate Student
Abdullah Sayed
Graduate Student
Siddharth Singh
Graduate Student
Joy Ren
Undergraduate Student
Zach Grossman
Undergraduate Student
Jack Morrison
Undergraduate Student
Alumni
Shalu Solomon
Postdoctoral Fellow
Now: Industry
Todd Zenger
Graduate Student
Now: Research Associate at Fermilab
Samuel Kelson
Undergraduate Student
Now: Ph.D. Student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
Dowling Wong
Undergraduate Student
Now: Ph.D. Student at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
Aishan D Dias
Undergraduate Student
Now: Ph.D. Student at Texas A&M University
Will Sorger
Undergraduate Student
Now: MS Student at Brandeis University
Group photos
MBL workshop and ATLAS Week at CERN, June 2025
One of many dinners at Luigia, February 2024
Selected Recent Publications
ATLAS Collaboration, ”Observation of double parton scattering in same-sign W boson pair production in pp collisions at √s= 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector”, Accepted at PLB (2025), arXiv:2505.08313
ATLAS Collaboration, ”Evidence for longitudinally polarized W bosons in the electroweak production of same-sign W boson pairs in association with two jets with the ATLAS detector”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 135 (2025) 111802, arXiv:2503.11317
A. Apyan et al., ”Performance measurements of the electromagnetic calorimeter and readout electronics system for the DarkQuest experiment”, NIM A, Volume 1080, (2025), 170792, arXiv:2502.20590
A. Apyan et al., ”Sensitivity to longitudinal vector boson scattering in W±W±jj at future hadron colliders”, Accepted at PRD (2025), arXiv:2203.07994
ATLAS Collaboration, ”Combination of searches for singly and doubly charged Higgs bosons produced via vector-boson fusion in proton-proton collisions at √s= 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector”, Phys. Lett. B 860 (2025), arXiv:2407.10798
CMS Collaboration, ”Measurement of the inclusive cross sections for W and Z boson production in proton-proton collisions at √s= 5.02 and 13 TeV”, JHEP 04 (2025) 162, arXiv:2408.03744
ATLAS Collaboration, ”Search for heavy Majorana neutrinos in e±e± and e±µ± final states via WW scattering in pp collisions at √s= 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector”, Phys. Lett. B 856 (2024), arXiv:2403.15016
ATLAS Collaboration, ”Measurement and interpretation of same-sign W boson pair production in association with two jets in pp collisions at √s= 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector”, JHEP 04 (2024) 026, arXiv:2312.00420
Brad Abbott, et al., ”Anomalous production of massive gauge boson pairs at muon colliders”, Phys. Rev. D 108 093009 (2023), arXiv:2203.08135
ATLAS Collaboration, ”Search for Majorana neutrinos in same-sign WW scattering events from pp collisions at √s= 13 TeV”, Eur. Phys. J. C 83 (2023) 824, arXiv:2305.14931
Teaching
Phys-107B/167B: Particle Physics
The phenomenology of elementary particles and the strong, weak, and electromagnetic interactions are studied. Properties of particles, quarks, neutrinos, vector bosons, Higgs particles, supersymmetry, symmetries, and conservation laws are covered. (Spring 2024, 2026)
Phys-20A: Vibrations and Waves
A survey of phenomena, ideas, and mathematics underlying modern physics-waves and oscillations, fourier analysis, and foundations of wave mechanics. (Fall 2024)
Phys-15B: Advanced Introductory Physics II
An advanced version of introductory physics sequence for students with good preparation in physics and mathematics. An introduction to electricity and magnetism and the special theory of relativity. (Spring 2022, 2023, 2025)
Phys-15A: Advanced Introductory Physics I
An advanced version of introductory physics sequence for students with good preparation in physics and mathematics. An introduction to Newtonian mechanics with special applications to several topics. (Fall 2021, 2022, 2024)
Resources
Basic software skills needed for High Energy physics research (UNIX shell, python, ROOT, SSH, etc.).
Practical introduction to modern neural networks intended for particle physicists.
Particle data group reviews
"The Good Talk Talk" by Natasha Batalhna and Emily Martin
Contact
Mailing Address
Aram Apyan, MS 057
Brandeis University
415 South Street
Waltham, MA 02453
