A quadruplet of MSc theses!
"Four MSc theses were defended in the second half of May by students who carried out their research at LIP: Henrique Legoinha (IST, LIP-CMS), Tomás Almeida (FCUL, LIP-RADART), Pedro Chaves (ECUM, LIP-Pheno) and Lia Pereira (FCUL, LIP-RADART/NUC-RIA). Congratulations to all!"
Henrique Legoinha defended on 18 May at IST the Master's thesis "Probing the Quark Gluon Plasma with B0s and B+ Mesons: Cross Sections in pp and Nuclear Modification Factors in PbPb Collisions". The work was supervised by Nuno Leonardo (LIP/IST). The members of the jury were Mário Pimenta (LIP/IST), Liliana Apolinário (LIP/IST), Yen-Jie Lie (MIT) and the supervisor
The work is part of the project to explore the b quark as a probe of the quark and gluon plasma (QGP) using data recorded by the CMS detector in collisions of heavy ions (PbPb) as well as protons (pp) at the LHC. Complete B hadron decays are reconstructed for the first time in PbPb collisions. This allows us to identify particles that are formed by b quarks and to distinguish their different species, for example the B0s and B+ mesons. Small amounts of QGP are formed in PbPb collisions at the LHC. This extreme medium affects how the b quarks also produced in the collision propagate and transform into the different species of B hadrons (i.e. hadronise). The effect of the QGP and its properties are measured by comparing the production of B mesons between PbPb collisions (where there is QGP) and pp collisions (where there isn't). Henrique measured the factor that quantifies the effect found in this comparison (RAA, or nuclear modification factor) for B0s and B+ mesons, as well as their ratio. An introduction to the topic is presented in this video. The thesis is published as CERN-THESIS-2023-064.
Tomás Almeida defended his Master's thesis entitled "Design of a phantom for radiobiology studies" on 23 May at the Faculty of Sciences of ULisboa (FCUL). The work was supervised by Jorge Sampaio (LIP/FCUL) and Brigida Ferreira (IBEB/FCUL). Members of the jury were Sandra Vieira (Champalimaud Foundation), Guiomar Evans (LI/FCUL) and Jorge Sampaio.
Tomás proposed a solution for irradiating well plates (small trays with several individual compartments, or wells, commonly used for laboratory analysis and cell cultures) at different depths in a phantom. The structure presented facilitates experimental procedures and their reproducibility. Tomás also studied, based on Monte Carlo simulations, the effect of the air spaces in the plates on the doses at depth resulting from irradiation with a clinical LINAC (linear accelerator). A version of this phantom will soon be built at the LIP Mechanical Workshop, in Coimbra, to be used in irradiations at Santa Maria Hospital, in Lisbon.
On 26 May, Pedro Chaves defended his Master's thesis entitled "Probing Dark Matter with Higgs Bosons and Top Quarks", at UMinho. The work was supervised by António Onofre (LIP/UMinho) and Rui Santos (CFTC/ISEL). The members of the jury were José Carlos Viana Gomes (UMinho), Ricardo Gonçalo (LIP/UCoimbra) and António Onofre.
Finally, on 30 May, Lia Pereira completed her Master's degree in Biomedical Engineering and Biophysics at FCUL by successfully defending the thesis entitled "The effects of radiation on amyloids and cells experimentally and modelled using the TOPAS framework". The thesis was supervised by Daniel Galaviz (LIP/FCUL). During her Master's, Lia Pereira developed her work integrated in the RADART group at LIP, collaborating also with the NUC-RIA group. The thesis defence was held in person, and the members of the jury were Jorge Sampaio (LIP/FCUL), Patrícia Gonçalves (LIP/IST) and the supervisor.
Congratulations to Tomás, Henrique, Pedro and Lia!