Fernando Abudinen
Uncovering new phenomena through rare decays
I am an experimental particle physicist specialised in the field of quark-flavour physics. I test the Standard Model of particle physics to its limits by studying rare decays of heavy hadrons. My goal is to uncover new phenomena that can reveal effects of physics beyond the Standard Model (BSM).
I design innovative analysis techniques to search for extremely rare heavy-hadron decays that are highly sensitive to BSM phenomena. I also make precision measurements of particle-decay properties, including angular and charge-parity asymmetries as well as decay rates of rare B-meson decays. Within the LHCb collaboration, I am convenor of the Very Rare Decays working group.
I am one of the main developers of the EvtGen simulation software, an essential tool for many studies of hadron decays in multiple particle-physics experiments. I study and implement new alternatives for the simulation of particle processes such as final-state photon radiation and tau-lepton decays and contribute to the modernisation of the software core. Within my simulation work, I contribute to the national software and infrastructure for high energy physics (SWIFTHEP) at the UK and collaborate with Research Software Engineers at Warwick.
During my PhD thesis, I developed the first flavour tagging algorithm at the Belle II experiment. This is an essential analysis tool for many measurements involving the time evolution of the flavour of neutral B mesons. The algorithm forms the basis of a new algorithm that achieves a world record for flavour tagging performance. After my PhD, I contributed to the commissioning of early data and first Belle II physics analyses, which delivered the first observations of charmless B-decays and the
first measurements of decay rates and charge-parity asymmetries of these decays at Belle II.
Recent publications
Below is a selected list of my recent publications, a complete list can be found at InspireHEP.
- Search for in decays, submitted to the European Physical Journal C. Preprint at arXiv:2409.17209.
- Search for decays and measurement of the branching fraction ratio , European Physical Journal C, Vol 84, Art. 468 (2024).
- Search for in decays, European Physical Journal C, Vol 83, Art. 666 (2023).
- Prospects for studies of and decays, European Physical Journal C, Vol 82, Art. 459 (2022).
- -flavor tagging at Belle II, European Physical Journal C, Vol 82, Art. 283 (2022).
Conference articles with peer review
- EvtGen – recent developments and prospects, EPJ Web of conferences, Vol 254, Art 03012 (2024).
Recent conference talks
- Rare and forbidden decays at LHCb, 12thEdition of the Large Hadron Collider Physics Conference, Jun 2024, Boston, USA.
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Measurements of very rare decays at LHCb, 16th International Conference on Heavy Quarks and Leptons, Nov 2023, Mumbai, India.
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EvtGen – recent developments and prospects, 26th International Conference on Computing in High Energy and Nuclear Physics, May 2023, Norfolk, USA.
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Rare charm and beauty decays at LHCb, 57th Rencontres de Moriond, March 2023, La Thuile, Italy.
Outreach activities
These are summer projects which I supervised. The projects included public engagement and were supported by the undergraduate research support scheme.
- Measuring angular properties of B- → pi- mu+ mu- decays at the LHCb experiment, Darcie Hurley, 2024.
- Exploring excited B mesons at the LHCb experiment, Samuel Deacon, 2023.
- Searching for Bc → pi mu mu decays, Callum White, 2022.
Find an LHCb event display showing simulated collision events with decays.
Thesis Supervision
- The search for decays and updating the measurement of with the LHCb experiment, Master thesis, Vedanshu Majahan, 2023.
- First reconstruction of charmless decays of the B meson at Belle II, Master thesis, Sebastiano Raiz, 2020.
Write To:
Department of Physics, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL
Contact Details:
Office:
PS0.01, Physical Sciences Building, Ground floor
E-Mail:
Further links:
Elementary Particle Physics Group
Warwick LHCb Group
LHCb experiment