Research in Collider Physics

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This proposal requests support for the University of Notre Dame (UND) high energy physics group, whose activities include the D0 experiment at the Tevatron, the CMS experiment at the CERN/LHC, the Linear Collider Project, and Education and Outreach through QuarkNet and RET. Their physics objectives are to study top and beauty physics, the electroweak bosons, W and Z, and QCD processes and to search for evidence of electroweak symmetry breaking, supersymmetry, extra (hidden) spatial dimensions and other new phenomena. UND plays a central role in the Run II upgrade of the D0 experiment. Currently, members of the group are managing the operation and commissioning of the Central Fiber Tracker (CFT), directing the offline track reconstruction, and taking the lead in analysis groups such as Searches for New Phenomena and Higgs Searches. UND has been instrumental in developing and designing the Trigger Upgrade to exploit the higher luminosities expected in Run IIb. The CMS experiment is nearing the end of its construction phase and is beginning the operation and commissioning phase at the Surface Hall SX5. UND's contribution has been the design and production of readout boxes (RBX) and optical decoder units (ODU), which are electro-optical interfaces for the barrel, outer barrel and endcap hadron calorimeter (HCAL) subsystems. UND expects to participate in the continued beam testing of HCAL elements and the testing of the readout chain of detector subsystems. Additionally, they intend to work on R&D for upgrades of CMS calorimetry. The Linear Collider Projects are in the beginning phase and UND is involved in R&D in Calorimetry, Muon and Accelerator Subsystems. Their educational objectives are not only to train postdoctoral researchers, graduate and undergraduate students but, in addition, to make significant efforts to engage non-traditional participants, high school teachers and high school students, in immersive research experiences in particle physics at the scientific frontier. QuarkNet is now in its fifth year and UND is one of the four institutions leading this national project that currently consists of 50 Centers in 30 States and Puerto Rico.