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Ashutosh Kotwal

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Ashutosh Kotwal
Ashutosh Kotwal
Born (1965-12-20) December 20, 1965 (age 58)
Mumbai, India
OccupationParticle physicist

Ashutosh Vijay Kotwal (born December 20, 1965) is an American particle physicist of Indian origin. He is the Fritz London Professor of Physics at Duke University, and conducts research in particle physics related to W bosons and the Higgs boson and searches for new particles and forces.

Early life

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Kotwal was born in Mumbai, India, and attended schools in Calcutta, Lucknow, New Delhi and Mumbai.[1] He then began studying at the University of Pennsylvania in 1983 on a full scholarship from the University, and graduated Summa cum Laude with dual degrees in electrical engineering from the Moore School and in economics with finance major from the Wharton School in 1988. He was a Benjamin Franklin Scholar at Penn. He received his PhD in physics from Harvard University in 1995.[1]

Career

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After conducting post-doctoral research at Columbia University, Kotwal joined Duke University as a professor in 1999,[1] where he is now the Fritz London Distinguished Professor of Physics [2] and has served as the Director of Particle Physics at the University.[3] Additionally, Kotwal was in charge of a Higgs boson search team as part of the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, with the aim of proving the existence of the particle.[3][4] Kotwal was part of the CERN team that announced the discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012.[3] He conducts experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) as well as at Fermilab in Chicago.[5] In addition to his research, Kotwal presently coordinates U.S. physicists in the global effort to build a new collider with 7 times higher energy than the LHC, and has collaborated with the Chinese and European groups in this effort.[6]

Research

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Kotwal leads the world in measuring the mass of the W boson, which is connected to the Higgs boson, using the data from the CDF and D0 experiments at Fermilab. In 2012, he analyzed 1 million W boson events to measure its mass to an accuracy of 0.02%,[7][8] then the world's most precise measurement, which in turn allowed him to predict the mass of the Higgs boson prior to its discovery in 2012.[5] In 2022, he analyzed 4 million W boson events to measure its mass to an accuracy of 0.01%.[9] This measurement is more precise than all previous measurements combined.[9] It is in significant tension with the value expected from the Standard Model of particle physics, and may imply the existence of new principles of physics in nature.[9] In 2023, the ATLAS experiment released an improved measurement for the mass of the W boson, 80,360 ± 16 MeV, which aligned with predictions from the Standard Model.[10][11]

Awards

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Kotwal was elected Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2008, and Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2012,[12] for performing high-precision measurements that helped deduce the mass of the Higgs boson.[13] Kotwal is the recipient of the Outstanding Junior Investigator Award from the US Department of Energy, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship. He has received the Dean's Leadership Award from Duke University[14] and is a Fellow of the Maharashtra Academy of Sciences, India.[15]

References

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  1. ^ a b c "Visions from Star Trek could become reality this century". The Indian Express. 21 June 2011.
  2. ^ "Duke Announces 2014 Distinguished Professors". today.duke.edu. 7 May 2014. Retrieved 2016-05-31.
  3. ^ a b c "Higgs boson discovery has Pune connection - Sakal Times". Archived from the original on 2016-12-21. Retrieved 2016-02-24.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  4. ^ "After Higgs is the Turn to Dark Matter and Gravity". Anne's Astronomy News. 15 July 2012.
  5. ^ a b "LHC could give evidence of evolution". The Times of India. 21 June 2011. Retrieved 24 February 2016.
  6. ^ "China's Proposed Heir to the LHC". www.aps.org. Retrieved 2016-05-30.
  7. ^ "Pune scientist devises method to measure 'W Boson' - Sakal Times". Archived from the original on 21 December 2016. Retrieved 24 February 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  8. ^ Kotwal, Manik (7 May 2022). "'डब्लू बोझॉन'-आख्यानाचा सूत्रधार". Loksatta (in Marathi). Retrieved 7 May 2022.
  9. ^ a b c Aaltonen, T.; et al. (2022). "High-precision measurement of the W boson mass with the CDF II detector". Science. 376 (6589): 170–176. Bibcode:2022Sci...376..170C. doi:10.1126/science.abk1781. hdl:11390/1225696. PMID 35389814. S2CID 248025265.
  10. ^ Ouellette, Jennifer (24 March 2023). "New value for W boson mass dims 2022 hints of physics beyond Standard Model". Ars Technica. Retrieved 26 March 2023.
  11. ^ "Improved W boson Mass Measurement using $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV Proton-Proton Collisions with the ATLAS Detector". ATLAS experiment. CERN. 22 March 2023. Retrieved 26 March 2023.
  12. ^ "Fellows of AAAS". membercentral.aaas.org. Retrieved 1 June 2016.[permanent dead link]
  13. ^ "Indian-origin scientist honoured in the US - Sakal Times". Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 24 February 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  14. ^ "Duke University Award Winners". trinity.duke.edu. Retrieved 31 May 2016.
  15. ^ "Maharashtra Academy of Sciences Members". mahascience.org. Retrieved 1 June 2016.
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