U.S. ATLAS Operations: Discovery and Measurement at the Energy Frontier

美国 ATLAS 运营：能源前沿的发现和测量

• 批准号: 1624739
• 负责人: John Hobbs
• 金额: $ 5475万
• 依托单位: SUNY at Stony Brook
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Cooperative Agreement
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-02-01 至 2023-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1624739&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: U.S.; ATLAS; Operations; Discovery; Measurement

Researchers in high energy physics seek to understand the fundamental nature of matter and the basic forces through which it interacts. One way they do this is by observing what happens when counter-rotating beams of protons collide. The characteristics of the debris produced in the collisions can reveal the basic physics of fundamental particles and the forces between them. Highly sophisticated particle detectors and analysis methods are required to measure these characteristics. NSF provides funding to US researchers to conduct research in experimental high energy physics using the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world?s premier laboratory for this research. In addition to directly supporting research activities, NSF will provide, via this award, funding to twelve US universities to maintain the operation of US-supplied components of the ATLAS detector and its supporting software and computing systems, carry out technical planning and development that will enable future enhancements to ATLAS?s detection capabilities, and promote science education and outreach. The Large Hadron Collider is located at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) near Geneva Switzerland.US participation in ATLAS will stimulate the development of a scientific and technically educated workforce, advancing the multidisciplinary application of technology, and the popularization and dissemination of science to the general public. The award will support activities that provide opportunities to develop and maintain complex detector apparatus, custom analog and digital electronics and software systems for data management, data processing and technical analysis. Technical professionals are required to perform many of these tasks, increasing the expertise of the US work force. The operation of existing detector components, design of upgrade components, and related research activities create opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration among university physics personnel, university personnel in engineering departments, and physics department technical personnel as physicists, electrical engineers, mechanical engineers and computer scientists work with post-docs and students. Similarly, physics personnel will work closely with computing professionals at their home institutions and at national laboratories to support the various software and computing activities.Technical part: This award supports the development and operation of the instrumentation and analysis tools that are essential to studying debris from proton-proton collisions. These tools are essential for answering basic, foundational questions, such as ?What is the origin of mass of the elementary particles?? The Higgs Boson discovery, a physical manifestation of the mechanism that generates elementary particle masses, led to the 2013 Physics Nobel Prize that was awarded to Peter Higgs and Francois Englert. Is that the end of the story, or are there other, as-of-yet undiscovered, contributions to this process? Other fundamental questions, equally important, may have answers that depend, at least in part, on the physics observed through the continued operation and analysis of data obtained from the LHC. ?What is the dark matter that accounts for 25% of the mass of the universe? Can dark matter be produced and observed at the LHC? Can evidence of extra dimensions predicted in some models be found at LHC energies? Are there particles with exotic properties, unlike any forms of matter observed so far, whose existence is predicted by some theories that extend the standard model of elementary particles?? In each case, answering the question requires the aggregation of large amounts of data from which to draw meaningful statistical inferences.

高能物理学的研究人员试图了解物质的基本性质和它相互作用的基本力。他们这样做的一种方法是观察当反向旋转的质子束碰撞时会发生什么。碰撞中产生的碎片的特征可以揭示基本粒子的基本物理和它们之间的力。需要高度复杂的粒子探测器和分析方法来测量这些特性。美国国家科学基金会提供资金，以美国研究人员进行实验高能物理研究，使用ATLAS探测器在大型强子对撞机（LHC），世界？是这项研究的首要实验室。除了直接支持研究活动外，NSF还将通过该奖项向12所美国大学提供资金，以维持美国提供的ATLAS探测器组件及其支持软件和计算系统的运行，进行技术规划和开发，以实现未来对ATLAS的增强。提高探测能力，促进科学教育和推广。大型强子对撞机位于瑞士日内瓦附近的欧洲核子研究组织（CERN）内。美国参与ATLAS将刺激一支受过科学和技术教育的劳动力队伍的发展，促进技术的多学科应用，并向公众普及和传播科学。该奖项将支持为开发和维护复杂的探测器设备、定制模拟和数字电子设备以及用于数据管理、数据处理和技术分析的软件系统提供机会的活动。技术专业人员需要执行许多这些任务，增加了美国劳动力的专业知识。现有探测器组件的操作、升级组件的设计以及相关的研究活动为大学物理人员、工程系的大学人员以及物理系技术人员之间的跨学科合作创造了机会，因为物理学家、电气工程师、机械工程师和计算机科学家与博士后和学生一起工作。同样，物理学人员将与本国机构和国家实验室的计算专业人员密切合作，支持各种软件和计算活动。这些工具对于回答基本的、基础性的问题是必不可少的，比如？基本粒子的质量起源是什么？希格斯玻色子的发现是产生基本粒子质量的机制的物理表现，导致了2013年诺贝尔物理学奖授予彼得·希格斯和弗朗索瓦·恩格勒。这是故事的结局吗？还是还有其他尚未发现的对这一过程的贡献？ 其他同样重要的基本问题的答案可能至少部分取决于通过持续运行和分析从LHC获得的数据所观察到的物理学。?占宇宙质量25%的暗物质是什么？暗物质可以在LHC中产生和观察吗？在某些模型中预测的额外维度的证据能在大型强子对撞机的能量中找到吗？是否存在具有奇异性质的粒子，与迄今为止观察到的任何形式的物质不同，其存在是由一些扩展基本粒子标准模型的理论预测的？ 在每一种情况下，回答这个问题都需要汇总大量数据，从中得出有意义的统计推断。