MRI Consortium: Developments for a Novel Pixel Tracking Layer for the ATLAS Detector

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This award provides partial support for a consortium of eleven universities (Brandeis, Hawaii, Iowa, New Mexico, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Stony Brock, UC-Berkeley, UC-Santa Cruz, and Washington) to construct a new pixel layer (called the Insertable B Layer or IBL) to go inside the present ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) thereby making a major and notable impact in this international program. The goal of this detector enhancement is to extend significantly the physics reach of ATLAS. In particular, it will improve the identification of b-quark jets for ATLAS, a capability that is crucial for many of the most interesting physics studies at the LHC such as the search for the Higgs and supersymmetry. This IBL will be composed of parts built and tested at U.S. universities, in collaboration with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBL) and a number of European research institutions, and finally assembled and installed in the ATLAS particle physics detector. The novel pixel device is not only crucial for the ATLAS experiment, advancing the physics program of over 500 scientists in the U.S., including over 170 graduate students, but will also promote innovations in detector technology. The construction, testing, and installation of the IBL will provide training for a number of students in areas crucial for the IBL: new electronics, detectors, lightweight mechanical structures, and data transmission systems. This opportunity would likely not be available in some of the smaller groups if the opportunity for this consortium were not established. For four of the eleven universities involved, the lead scientist on the IBL project is female, fostering diversity in the field. Five of the universities in the proposal are located in EPSCoR states.