Probing Eectroweak Symmetry Breaking and Searches for New Physics at the LHC with the ATLAS Experiment

利用 ATLAS 实验在大型强子对撞机上探测微弱对称性破缺并寻找新物理

• 批准号: 1807374
• 负责人: Kathryn Grimm
• 金额: $ 38.96万
• 依托单位: California State University, East Bay Foundation, Inc.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-08-15 至 2022-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1807374&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Probing; Eectroweak; Symmetry; Breaking; Searches

This award will provide support to a new group working on the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, a particle physics laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland. The LHC machine and ATLAS, a large particle detector facility, were built as basic science tools using funds from NSF and other agencies around the world. One of their primary objectives was to find the Higgs Boson, the last particle in the historically successful "Standard Model" (SM) that accounts for so much of the existence of, and forces between, known particles forming the matter in the universe. This effort has been successful. The next step in the experiments is to look for evidence for physics Beyond the Standard Model (BSM) that might, for instance, account for the presence of the mysterious "Dark Matter" that makes up so much of the mass of the universe. The LHC is currently in the midst of Run 2, at almost twice the energy explored earlier and with significantly increased event samples. It is possible that evidence for BSM physics could emerge at this higher energy and with the higher event statistics. Search for evidence of such physics is the goal of this project.The California State University East Bay high energy physics group will use data collected by the ATLAS experiment to probe the mechanism by which fundamental particles acquire mass through electroweak symmetry breaking (EWSB) and to search for evidence of new physics. The group will search for pairs of Higgs bosons and other exotic particles decaying to pairs of b-quarks and pairs of tau leptons. Study of such rare events has become more viable as the center-of-mass energy of the LHC is increased to 14 TeV and the luminosity of the accelerator facility is steadily increased. In parallel, upgrades of the ATLAS detector are underway which will allow for further improvements in data recording. The Cal State East Bay group will focus on reconstruction of particle tracks and their association with primary collision vertices, important for the identification and measurement of the b-quarks and tau leptons in complex particle interactions. Collaboration is planned with the ATLAS group at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory to work on the upgrade of the ATLAS Fast TracKer (FTK), instrumentation that facilitates fast charged-particle track finding used in triggering.This research program will bring the excitement and study of high energy physics to Cal State East Bay, which is recognized as a university with one of the most diverse undergraduate student enrollments in the country. Students in the group will participate in collaborative science, data analysis, and in instrumentation testing at the group's campus laboratories and at SLAC and CERN.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.

该奖项将为瑞士日内瓦粒子物理实验室 CERN 大型强子对撞机 (LHC) 中从事 ATLAS 实验的新团队提供支持。 LHC 机器和 ATLAS（大型粒子探测器设施）是利用 NSF 和世界各地其他机构的资金作为基础科学工具建造的。他们的主要目标之一是找到希格斯玻色子，这是历史上成功的“标准模型”（SM）中的最后一个粒子，该模型解释了形成宇宙物质的已知粒子的存在以及它们之间的力。这项努力取得了成功。实验的下一步是寻找标准模型（BSM）之外的物理学证据，例如，这些证据可能解释构成宇宙大部分质量的神秘“暗物质”的存在。 LHC 目前正处于第二轮运行中，其能量几乎是之前探索的两倍，并且事件样本显着增加。 BSM 物理学的证据可能会在更高的能量和更高的事件统计数据中出现。寻找这种物理的证据是这个项目的目标。加州州立大学东湾分校高能物理小组将利用ATLAS实验收集的数据来探讨基本粒子通过电弱对称性破缺（EWSB）获得质量的机制，并寻找新物理的证据。 该小组将寻找成对的希格斯玻色子和其他衰变成成对的 b 夸克和成对的 tau 轻子的奇异粒子。 随着 LHC 的质心能量增加到 14 TeV 并且加速器设施的光度稳步增加，对此类罕见事件的研究变得更加可行。 与此同时，ATLAS 探测器的升级正在进行中，这将进一步改进数据记录。 加州州立大学东湾小组将重点关注粒子轨迹的重建及其与初级碰撞顶点的关联，这对于复杂粒子相互作用中 b 夸克和 tau 轻子的识别和测量非常重要。 计划与 SLAC 国家加速器实验室的 ATLAS 小组合作，升级 ATLAS Fast Tracker (FTK)，该仪器可促进触发中使用的快速带电粒子轨迹查找。该研究项目将为加州州立大学东湾分校带来高能物理的兴奋和研究，加州州立大学东湾分校被认为是全美本科生入学最多样化的大学之一。 该小组的学生将参与该小组校园实验室以及 SLAC 和 CERN 的协作科学、数据分析和仪器测试。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。