Experimental Studies of Fundamental Symmetries

由美国国家科学基金会支持的石溪粒子物理小组提出的“基本对称性实验研究”的学术价值，将提供对自然界基本力量对称性被打破的潜在原因的新理解。电磁力和弱力之间的对称性在100 GeV以上的尺度上被观察到，但在低能量时被打破。基本相互作用和物质成分的标准模型（SM）假设希格斯机制，导致可观察到的新粒子（希格斯玻色子），它引起对称破缺，并赋予所有观察到的夸克，轻子和规范玻色子质量。尽管逻辑上是一致的，但这种机制被广泛认为是一个不完整的、可能有缺陷的解释。新的现象可能会存在，这可能会为进一步统一力量指明道路，并确定宇宙中暗物质的候选者。新的实验数据对于发现自然如何选择扩展SM是必不可少的。这些问题将在两个实验项目中进行探索，一个是在欧洲核子研究中心的ATLAS实验，另一个是在费米实验室的Tevatron DØ研究。该计划的广泛影响涉及几个领域。该小组将为高中物理教师制定改进的培训计划，支持Mariachi项目，该项目在该地区的高中教室安装探测器，以感应高能宇宙射线阵雨，允许学生通过计算机网格协作测量其属性并学习实验技能，并继续向普通观众发表关于物理研究，加速器和技术附属产品的演讲。

The intellectual merit resulting from the proposed research of the Stony Brook NSF supported particle physics group, Experimental Studies of Fundamental Symmetries, will be the provision of new understanding of underlying causes for the breaking of the symmetry in the fundamental forces of nature. The symmetry between the electromagnetic and weak forces is observed to occur above the 100 GeV scale, but is broken at low energy. The Standard Model (SM) of fundamental interactions and constituents of matter posits the Higgs mechanism, resulting in an observable new particle (the Higgs boson), which induces the symmetry breaking, and gives mass to all observed quarks, leptons and gauge bosons. Though logically consistent, this mechanism is widely believed to be an incomplete and a probably flawed explanation. New phenomena are likely to exist which could point the way to further unification of forces and identify a candidate for the dark matter in the universe. New experimental data are essential to discover how Nature has chosen to extend the SM. These questions will be explored in two experimental programs, one at the ATLAS experiment at the CERN and the other being DØ research at the Fermilab Tevatron. The broader impact of the program touches several areas. The group will develop improved training programs for high school physics teachers, support the Mariachi Project that installs detectors to sense high energy cosmic ray showers in high school classrooms across the region, allowing students to collaborate through a computer grid in measuring their properties and to learn experimental skills, and to continue to give talks on physics research, accelerators and technological spinoffs to general audiences.