Physics at the LHC with CMS

粒子物理学的标准模型是一个非常成功的理论，它与几十年来涉及弱、电磁和强相互作用的实验观察相一致。2012年大型强子对撞机发现希格斯玻色子进一步证实了这一成功。然而，标准模型仍然是一个不完整的理论，因为它不能解释暗物质，也不能解释光中微子的质量。有趣的是，这些不足似乎是描述宇宙最大和最小尺度的科学中有趣的重叠的一部分：标准模型的扩展也揭示了我们对宇宙演化的理解，以及天文学家测量的暗物质遗迹密度。这项工作利用瑞士日内瓦欧洲核子研究中心（CERN）大型强子对撞机（Large Hadron Collider）丰富的粒子物理项目，寻找暗物质和标准模型之外的其他物理现象。CMS实验收集的扩展的LHC数据集为新的发现提供了重要的机会，为新的物理特征提供了更高的灵敏度，这些特征将解决粒子物理学和宇宙学中的问题。这个研究项目的目的是研究这两个学科之间的协同作用所激发的问题，例如，利用矢量玻色子聚变过程产生的事件来寻找暗物质和超对称。此外，这项工作利用tau轻子重建和识别来搜索tev尺度的粒子，结合其他技术，可以有针对性地搜索有趣的新物理，如暗物质、压缩谱SUSY、重中微子、轻夸克和新的重中性规范玻色子，如z撇。这项研究还得益于CMS像素检测器的硬件操作和开发工作，以及先进的机器学习数据分析技术的开发。此外，该小组将开展多种教育和外展活动，包括国家倡议Quarknet，为范德比尔特大学本科生提供研究体验，为当地中学生举办实习生日，并为学生举办“暗物质节”。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The Standard Model of particle physics has been a remarkably successful theory, agreeing with several decades of experimental observations involving weak, electromagnetic, and strong interactions. The LHC discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012 was further confirmation of this success. However, the Standard Model remains an incomplete theory as it fails to explain dark matter and it does not provide an explanation for the mass of light neutrinos. Interestingly, these insufficiencies appear to be part of an intriguing overlap in the sciences describing the largest and smallest scales of the universe: proposed extensions of the Standard Model also shed light on our understanding of the evolution of our universe and the dark matter relic density measured by astronomers. This work exploits the rich particle physics program at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland to search for dark matter and other physics beyond the Standard Model.The expanding LHC data set collected by the CMS experiment offers significant opportunity for new discovery, providing greater sensitivity for new physics signatures which would address questions in both particle physics and cosmology. This research program is aimed at questions motivated by the synergy between these two disciplines, for example, by using events produced through vector boson fusion processes to search for dark matter and supersymmetry. In addition, this effort leverages searches for TeV-scale particles using tau lepton reconstruction and identification, which combined with other technicques, enables targeted searches for interesting new physics such as dark matter, compressed spectra SUSY, heavy neutrinos, leptoquarks, and new heavy neutral gauge bosons such as Z-prime. This research is also enabled by hardware operations and development work on the CMS pixel detector and on development of advanced machine learning data analysis techniques. In addition, the group will undertake multiple education and outreach activities, including the national initiative Quarknet, research experiences for Vanderbilt undergraduates, hosting intern days for local secondary school students, and hosting a "Dark Matter Fest" for students.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.