Studies in Elementary Particle Physics

基本粒子物理研究

• 批准号: 0457374
• 负责人: Morris Swartz
• 金额: $ 167.5万
• 依托单位: Johns Hopkins University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2005
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2005-04-15 至 2008-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0457374&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Studies; Elementary; Particle; Physics

Funds are requested to support a program of experimental particle physics research at the world's highest energy hadron colliders. The program involves the continuing collaboration in the CDF experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron and the CMS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The CDF experiment is currently in a data-taking phase and is expected to run for a number of years. The CMS experiment is being prepared to begin operation in 2007. The proposed program has considerable intellectual merit. The scientific goals of the program are to determine the source of spontaneous symmetry breaking and to make precise heavy quark measurements that constrain physics beyond the Standard Model. The proposed program is beginning at the lower luminosity and energy at the Tevatron where the short term goals are to study heavy quark physics. Many theoretical mechanisms of spontaneous symmetry breaking include states that preferentially decay into heavy quarks or other long-lived states. If the luminosity of the Tevatron increases significantly, the search for new states related to spontaneous symmetry breaking may become feasible and will rely on techniques associated with heavy flavor physics. Current theoretical ideas suggest that mechanisms of spontaneous symmetry breaking should manifest themselves at the LHC. For hardware, the JHU group has chosen to contribute to the silicon-based vertex tracking of both experiments. The silicon technology permits the identification of long-lived states by searching for secondary vertices displaced from the primary vertex. JHU has contributed to the hardware, software, commissioning, and calibration of silicon strip vertex detectors for CDF. Similar contributions are proposed for the forward pixel tracking system of CMS, particularly in the areas of sensor development, system design, infrastructure, and software. JHU has created an N-tiered database for CDF that will have direct application to CMS and other experiments. A number of studies of heavy quark states with the moderate statistics are currently available at CDF. Results of these analyses are the first step in continuing studies that may eventually give new insight into the origin of the matter dominance in the universe and may contribute to the understanding of the origin of mass. The impact of the proposed research program reaches beyond particle physics. The proposed work on active pixel detector technology has application to instrumentation used at synchrotron light sources which study materials and biological systems. The pixel simulation code developed by the JHU group may have applications in astronomy in the understanding and optimization of infrared detectors used in satellite-borne telescopes. The proposed work on distributed databases has strong overlap with work being done by JHU colleagues for several large astronomy projects. Distributed databases are another internet-based technology that could have far-reaching application in all sectors of the society. In addition, the proposed research has a strong educational component. It provides direct support and training for a number of graduate and undergraduate students. JHU hosts a QuarkNet center which has a current membership of 11 Baltimore area high school teachers. There is a plan to work on a user friendly web interface that will permit high school students to submit particle physics queries to the Open Science Grid. The JHU QuarkNet Center has initiated an annual regional Physics Fair.

基金被要求支持世界上最高能量强子对撞机的实验粒子物理研究项目。该项目包括费米实验室Tevatron的CDF实验和欧洲核子研究中心大型强子对撞机（LHC）的CMS实验的持续合作。CDF实验目前正处于数据采集阶段，预计将持续数年。CMS实验正准备在2007年开始操作。所提出的方案具有相当大的智力价值。该计划的科学目标是确定自发对称性破缺的来源，并进行精确的重夸克测量，以约束超出标准模型的物理学。该计划从较低光度和能量的Tevatron开始，其短期目标是研究重夸克物理。许多自发对称破缺的理论机制包括优先衰变为重夸克或其他长寿态的状态。如果Tevatron的光度显著增加，寻找与自发对称性破缺有关的新状态可能变得可行，并将依赖于与重味物理相关的技术。目前的理论观点认为，自发对称性破缺的机制应该在大型强子对撞机中表现出来。在硬件方面，JHU小组选择为这两个实验的基于硅的顶点跟踪做出贡献。硅技术允许通过搜索从主要顶点位移的次要顶点来识别长寿命状态。JHU为CDF的硅带顶点探测器的硬件、软件、调试和校准做出了贡献。对于CMS的前向像素跟踪系统，特别是在传感器开发、系统设计、基础设施和软件方面，提出了类似的贡献。JHU为CDF创建了一个n层数据库，将直接应用于CMS和其他实验。目前在CDF上有许多关于重夸克态的研究，这些研究具有适度的统计数据。这些分析的结果是继续研究的第一步，这些研究最终可能会对宇宙中占主导地位的物质的起源提供新的见解，并可能有助于理解质量的起源。拟议的研究计划的影响超出了粒子物理学。提出的有源像素探测器技术在同步加速器光源上用于研究材料和生物系统的仪器中具有应用价值。JHU小组开发的像素模拟代码可能在天文学中用于理解和优化星载望远镜中使用的红外探测器。提议的分布式数据库工作与JHU的同事在几个大型天文学项目中所做的工作有很大的重叠。分布式数据库是另一种基于互联网的技术，在社会的各个领域都有广泛的应用。此外，拟议的研究具有很强的教育成分。它为一些研究生和本科生提供直接支持和培训。JHU拥有一个QuarkNet中心，目前有11名巴尔的摩地区的高中教师。有一个计划是开发一个用户友好的网络界面，允许高中生向开放科学网格提交粒子物理查询。JHU QuarkNet中心发起了一年一度的区域物理博览会。