{"id":5129,"date":"2026-05-13T15:08:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T19:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/?post_type=profiles&#038;p=5129"},"modified":"2026-10-09T11:59:40","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T15:59:40","slug":"aimen-obaid","status":"publish","type":"profiles","link":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/profiles\/aimen-obaid\/","title":{"rendered":"Aimen Obaid"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-8f761849 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:100%\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-nowrap is-layout-flex wp-container-core-group-is-layout-8f761849 wp-block-group-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/05\/Obaid-Aimen-e1791561113664.jpg\" alt=\"Obaid, Aimen\" class=\"wp-image-5620\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-container-content-69bc4bdf wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>MIT Department: <\/strong><br>Physics<br><br><strong>Faculty Mentor<\/strong>: <br>Christoph Paus<br><br><strong>Research Supervisor: <\/strong><br>David Walter, Luca Lavezzo<br><br><strong>Undergraduate Institution:<\/strong><br>Smith College<strong><br><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Biography<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Aimen Obaid is a rising senior at Smith College, double majoring in Physics and Engineering. At Smith, she has pursued fundamental research through theoretical work in quantum mechanics and experimental atomic physics. Last summer, she worked with Dr. Irene Zoi through USCMS at Fermilab, implementing an analysis of vector boson scattering as a probe of Higgs physics, deepening her appreciation for particle physics and motivating her senior thesis. She spent her junior spring at Princeton University, exploring graduate-level high-energy theory, strengthening her interest in pursuing a Ph.D. at the interface of precision measurement and new physics. This summer, she\u2019s working with Dr. Christoph Paus on the precision measurement of the strong-coupling constant through Drell-Yan W-boson production at 5 TeV. Raised in Lahore, Pakistan, she cares about science education access, women\u2019s rights in South Asia, and making fundamental physics feel less distant from the worlds that shaped her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\"><br><strong>Measurement of \u03b1s (mW) using W\u00b1 Boson Kinematics at \u221as = 5.02 TeV<br>Aimen Obaid<sup>1<\/sup>, David Walter<sup>2<\/sup>, Luca Lavezzo<sup>2<\/sup>, Christoph M. E. Paus<sup>2<\/sup><\/strong><br><sup>1<\/sup>Department of Physics, Smith College<br><sup>2<\/sup>Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left wp-block-paragraph\"><br>The strong coupling, \u03b1s, governs quantum chromodynamics and remains one of the least precisely known Standard Model couplings. In Drell\u2013Yan production, initial-state QCD radiation gives the vector boson nonzero transverse momentum, making the low-pT spectrum sensitive to \u03b1s. This project develops a 5 TeV W\u00b1 analysis aimed at extracting \u03b1s(mW) from W \u2192 \u03bc\u03bd distributions and theoretical variations, providing an independent constraint complementary to related vector-boson measurements. In W \u2192 \u03bc\u03bd events, the neutrino transverse momentum is inferred from missing transverse momentum, allowing pT W to be reconstructed as the vector sum of the muon and neutrino transverse momenta. The analysis fits pT W distributions separated by W charge and muon pseudorapidity to templates generated with varied \u03b1s values and parton-distribution-function variations. This work reconstructed the key W boson and muon observables, propagated the theory variations into the fit inputs, validated the template-fitting framework, and developed a data-driven estimate of the nonprompt muon background using control regions in relative isolation and transverse impact parameter. These contributions establish the foundation for the first W-based \u03b1s analysis at 5 TeV and strengthen future combined constraints across complementary vector-boson measurements.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":5620,"template":"","profile_category":[25],"class_list":["post-5129","profiles","type-profiles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","profile_category-2026-interns"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profiles\/5129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profiles"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/profiles"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profiles\/5129\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6050,"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profiles\/5129\/revisions\/6050"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"profile_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oge.mit.edu\/msrp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/profile_category?post=5129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}