MRI: Development of a Silicon Vertex Detector for the Higgs Search at the Tevatron Collider

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This proposal requests support for the development of a Silicon Vertex Detector to allow discovery of the long-sought Higgs boson using the D0 detector in Run II at the Fermilab Tevatron proton-antiproton collider. The Tevatron collider is currently the only facility in the world capable of making a Higgs discovery. Simulation studies have shown that the two Tevatron collider experiments, CDF and D0, are sensitive to the Higgs over almost all its presently allowed mass range. Furthermore, there is some evidence from the recently decommissioned LEP electron-positron collider at CERN for a light Higgs (~115 GeV) in the region where the Fermilab experiments have their greatest sensitivity.A key element in the Higgs search is the ability to detect the b-quarks from Higgs decay. The b-quark lifetime is sufficiently long (~1.5 picoseconds) that it can be identified by a Silicon Vertex Detector that precisely measures charged particle tracks. The current D0 silicon detector was designed well before the potential for making a Higgs discovery was appreciated and is not sufficiently radiation-hard for the Higgs search. Thus, the D0 collaboration has embarked on designing a new Silicon Vertex Detector that is specifically optimized for the Higgs search, to be installed by 2004 when the performance of the current vertex detector will have been diminished by radiation damage.With this MRI proposal, a consortium of eight university groups, five of which are currently supported by the NSF for their D0 work, propose to develop, procure, assemble, and test the silicon sensor assemblies for five of the six layers that will be built. These assemblies are the active elements that make the charged track measurements and constitute a major contribution to the detector. The development of this new silicon vertex detector would be a joint development project between university groups and Fermilab. Much of the intellectual and technical leadership for this effort originates in the university groups. NSF support will bring strong intellectual and technical input to the project through the design, fabrication, and testing of detector components by university faculty and students working closely together at their home institutions.