Beyond the Standard Model in the Electroweak Sector with Tau Leptons

该奖项将为位于瑞士日内瓦的粒子物理实验室CERN的大型强子对撞机（LHC）的ATLAS实验工作提供支持。大型强子对撞机和大型粒子探测器阿特拉斯（ATLAS）是利用美国国家科学基金会（NSF）和世界各地其他机构的资金建造的基础科学工具。2012年，大型强子对撞机发现了一种质量接近125 GeV的希格斯玻色子，这不仅代表了粒子物理学标准模型的最高成就，也暗示了它之外的一个问题——如果没有新的、未被发现的物理学，轻希格斯玻色子怎么可能在巨大的、不稳定的量子效应中存活下来呢？实验的下一步是寻找超越标准模型（BSM）的物理证据，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。大型强子对撞机目前刚刚开始一个新的阶段，运行2，以更高的能量和更多的事件样本。在接下来的几年里，BSM物理学的证据可能会出现。该奖项将为通过寻找希格斯衰变为重tau轻子来探测新的BSM物理提供工具。Taus只能通过本身很难检测到的衰变产物来观察。PI将应用新的机器学习技术来提取这些希格斯衰变，这些希格斯衰变具有来自碰撞质子的巨大动量转移。这类希格斯粒子对新的BSM粒子的贡献尤其敏感。提出的研究也有可能进一步提高ATLAS探测器探测τ轻子强子衰变的能力。该奖项将在西雅图当地高中的推广活动中产生更广泛的影响。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。

This award will provide support for work 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. The 2012 discovery, at the LHC, of a Higgs boson with mass close to 125 GeV represents both the crowning achievement of the Standard Model of particle physics and a hint beyond it - how can a light Higgs boson possibly survive huge, destabilizing quantum effects without new, undiscovered physics? 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 just starting a new phase, Run 2, at higher energy and increased event samples. It is possible that evidence for BSM physics could emerge in the next couple of years.This award will provide tools for detecting new BSM physics through searches for Higgs decaying to heavy tau leptons. Taus can only be seen through the decay products which themselves are difficult to detect. The PI will apply new machine learning techniques to extract these Higgs decays which have a large momentum transfer from the colliding protons. This class of Higgs is especially sensitive to contributions to new BSM particles. The proposed studies also have the potential to further improve the capabilities of the ATLAS detector to detect hadronic decays of the τ lepton. The broader impacts of this award will be in outreach activities in local Seattle high schools.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.