Salvatore Rappoccio, PhD

335 Fronczak Hall
(716) 645-6250
srrappoc@buffalo.edu

• BS, Physics, Boston University – 2000
• PhD, Physics, Harvard University – 2005
• Postdoctoral Research at Johns Hopkins University 2007-2012

High Energy Experiment, HEPCOS

Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment, Searches for new physics, Boosted jets, Measurements involving the top quark, Jetsubstructure, Silicon pixel tracking detectors

I am interested in searching for solutions to the vast discrepancy between the mass of the Higgs boson (~100 GeV) and the Planck scale (~1018 GeV), also known as the hierarchy problem. To explore the energy regime of interest, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) collides protons at 13 TeV, producing heavier particles such as the Higgs boson, the top quark, and the W and Zbosons. Many models that solve the hierarchy result in particles with large Lorentz boosts, culminating in massive hadronically decaying particles (boosted jets). I am also interested in the details of the strong nuclear force, quantum chromodynamics (QCD),in particular within sprays of particles produced by QCD called “jets,” and the production of the heaviest known particle, the top quark.

• CMS LHC Physics Center Distinguished Researcher Award, 2015
• As part of the CMS Collaboration : High Energy and Particle Physics Prize from the European Physical Society, “For the discovery of a Higgs boson,” 2013

• Measurement of the differential ttbar production cross section for high-pt top quarks in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 8TeV. 
Phys.Rev. D94 (2016) no.7, 072002
• Search for resonant ttbar production in proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV
Phys. Rev. D93 (2016) no.1, 012001
• Search for massive resonances in dijet systems containing jets tagged as W or Z boson decays in pp collisions atsqrt(s)= 8 TeV
JHEP 1408 (2014) 173
• Searches for new physics using the ttbar invariant mass distribution in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 8TeV
Phys.Rev.Lett. 111 (2013) 211804
• Inclusive search for a vector-like T quark with charge 2/3 in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV
 Phys. Lett. B729 (2014) 149-171
• Search for top-quark partners with charge 5/3 in the same-sign dilepton final state
Phys.Rev.Lett. 112 (2014) 17, 171801
• Search for anomalous ttbar production in the highly-boosted all-hadronic final state, 
JHEP 1209 (2012) 029
• Search for heavy resonances in the W/Z-tagged dijet mass spectrum in pp collisions at 7 TeV, 
Phys.Lett. B723 (2013) 280-301
• Studies of jet mass in dijet and W/Z+jet events, 
JHEP 1305 (2013) 090
• Measurement of the ttbar production cross section in pp collisions at 7 TeV with lepton + jets final states, Phys.Lett. B720 (2013) 83-104
• Measurement of the ttbar production cross section in pp collisions at 7 TeV in lepton + jets events using b-quark jet identification, 
Phys.Rev.D (2011) 092004

For a complete list of publications, please see Inspire.