Assistant Professor, Ph.D. Harvard University (2005)

Education

Research Interests

• Research and development of particle detectors
• Simulation of physics processes and detector response
• Quantum chromodynamics "jet" reconstruction
• Search for physics beyond the Standard Model, especially involving the top quark
• Precision measurements of the top quark.

Professor Rappoccio's research interests are focused on "natural" solutions to the question of why the electroweak scale is different from the Planck scale. The solutions Prof. Rappoccio is most interested in are those where top quarks play a special role in this process, including examinations of models that predict extra spatial dimensions in our universe, and supersymmetry (SUSY).

As a member of the CMS Collaboration, Prof. Rappoccio has been actively involved since 2007. He is involved in QCD jet reconstruction and triggering, advanced techniques for identifying fast-moving heavy particles like top quarks and W/Z/H bosons, and upgrades to the CMS detector in 2013-2015.

Selected Publications

1. Search for anomalous t t-bar production in the highly-boosted all-hadronic final state, CMS Collaboration (S. Chatrchyan et al.), Accepted by JHEP (arXiv:1204.2488)
2. Boosted objects: A Probe of beyond the Standard Model physics, A. Abdesselamh et al, Eur.Phys.J. C71 (2011) 1661, (arXiv:1012.5412)
3. Measurement of the ttbar Production Cross Section in pp Collisions at 7 TeV in Lepton + Jets Events Using b-quark Jet Identification, CMS Collaboration (S. Chatrchyan et al.), Phys.Rev. D84 (2011) 092004 (arXiv:1108.3773)
4. Measurement of the ttbar Production Cross Section in p pbar Collisions at sqrt(s) = 1.96-TeV, CDF Collaboration (A. Abulencia et al), Phys.Rev.Lett. 97 (2006) 082004 (hep-ex/0606017)
5. Determination of Jet Energy Calibration and Transverse Momentum Resolution in CMS, CMS Collaboration (S. Chatrchyan et al.), JINST 6 (2011) P11002 (arXiv:1107.4277)
6. Observation of a new boson at a mass of 125 GeV with the CMS experiment at the LHC, CMS Collaboration (S. Chatrchyan et al.), Submitted to Phys. Lett. B (arXiv:1207.7235)