Experimental High Energy Particle Physics Research at UCL

实验粒子物理学研究的是极小的尺寸，或相当于极高的能量。它教会了我们物理宇宙的根本性质，以及支配它发展的力量和规律，从大爆炸的第一个时刻，一直到现在，直到遥远的未来。粒子物理学带来了许多革命性的想法，这些想法对我们看待自己和世界的方式产生了深远的影响。这些想法强大的原因之一是，它们植根于对我们周围世界的实际科学观察--也就是实验--并得到了检验。没有实验，科学就是死的。能够达到这些能量和大小极端的实验在技术上具有很大的挑战性。这些挑战包括设计可以在恶劣环境中运行的精密探测器，可以实现高能碰撞的粒子加速器，能够识别非常罕见的衰变和非常小的背景噪声的超灵敏探测器，可以每秒读取数百万条信息的高速电子设备，以及可以在世界各地的分布式计算系统中分析数据的强大、灵活的软件。因此，活跃的粒子物理活动的另一个后果是刺激技术发展和培训开发和使用高技术的熟练人员。这是一项“滚动拨款”，这意味着它涵盖了各种各样的粒子物理实验。这笔滚动拨款支撑了高技能研究和技术人员的基础，使UCL能够在最高级别成为实验物理学的领导者。它提供了一种职业保障措施，以及旅行和设备费用。这也使该组织能够有效地培训博士生，我们实际上正在竞标资助几名博士生获得这笔助学金。这笔赠款将支持的科学包括：-使用汉堡HERA对撞机上的宙斯探测器分析电子-质子碰撞，这将告诉我们越来越多关于质子和光子的内部结构，以及将质子聚集在一起的强大核力的信息。-分析与芝加哥Tevatron对撞机CDF探测器的质子-反质子碰撞，那里正在对W玻色子(携带弱核力)进行精确测量，研究超重顶夸克，并搜索希格斯玻色子。-分析芝加哥MINOS实验中的中微子振荡。这个神秘的中微子曾经被认为是无质量的，但现在人们知道它有质量-MINOS将对不同的中微子之间的混合进行最精确的测量。-欧洲核子研究中心ATLAS探测器投入使用，并对大型强子对撞机的第一次数据进行分析。大型强子对撞机是第一台在“能量视界”之上运行的对撞机，在“能量视界”之上，弱磁力和电磁力是统一的。除了希格斯粒子，大型强子对撞机可能会发现超对称性、额外的空间维度或其他我们甚至想象不到的奇异现象。-分析NEMO-III实验的数据，该实验是法国一座山下的一个超灵敏探测器，正在寻找“无中微子双β衰变”。如果被发现，这个罕见的过程不仅将提供迄今为止对中微子质量的最佳测量，而且还将证明，与所有其他粒子不同，中微子是它自己的反粒子。如果这是真的，这将为“大一统”尺度上的物理学提供一条大线索，在这个尺度上，所有的力都在(也许！)统一的。我们还有其他中微子项目，拟议中的国际直线对撞机的工作，以及一些理论活动，所有这些都主要由其他赠款资助。这些项目从与滚动赠款的共同选址中受益匪浅。所有这些项目都为UCL高能物理这一令人兴奋的智力环境做出了贡献。

Experimental particle physics is about looking at extremely small sizes, or equivalently extremely high energies. It teaches us about the underlying nature of the physical universe, and the forces and laws that govern its development, from the first moments of the big bang, through to the present day, and far into the future. Particle physics has led to many revolutionary ideas, which have had a profound impact upon the way we think about ourselves and the world. One reason for the power of these ideas is that they are grounded in and tested by actual scientific observations of the world around us - that is, experiment. Without experiment, science is dead. Experiments capable of reaching these extremes of energy and size are very technically challenging. The challenges include devising precision detectors which can operate in hostile environments, particle accelerators which can achieve high energy collisions, super-sensitive detectors capable of identifying very rare decays with very small 'background noise', high-speed electronics which can read out millions of pieces of information per second, and robust, flexible software which can analyse the data in a distributed computing system all over the world. Thus another consequence of an active particle physics activity is a stimulation of technological developments and the training of people skilled in the development and use of high technology. This is a 'rolling grant', which means that it covers a broad variety of particle physics experiments. The rolling grant underpins the base of highly skilled research and technical staff which makes UCL able to be a leader in experimental physics at the very highest levels. It provides a measure of career security, as well as travel and equipment money. This also allows the group to function effectively in the training of PhD students, and we are in fact bidding to fund several PhD students on this grant. The science this grant will support includes: - Analysis of electron-proton collisions using the ZEUS detector at the HERA collider in Hamburg, which is telling us more and more about the internal structure of the proton and the photon, and about the strong nuclear force which holds the proton together. - Analysis of proton-antiproton collisions with the CDF detector at the Tevatron collider in Chicago, where precision measurements of the W boson (which carries the weak nuclear force), studies of the super-heavy top quark, and a search for the Higgs boson are underway. - Analysis of neutrino oscillations from the MINOS experiment in Chicago. The mysterious neutrino was once thought to be massless but is now known to have mass - MINOS will make the most precise measurement of the mixing between the different 'flavours' of neutrino. - Commisioning of the ATLAS detector at CERN, and analysis of the first date from the LHC. The LHC is the first collider to operate above the 'energy horizon' above which the weak and electromagentic forces are unified. As well as the Higgs, the LHC may find supersymmetry, extra spatial dimensions, or other exotica we have not even imagined. - Analysis of data from the NEMO-III experiment, a super-sensitive detector under a mountain in France searching for 'neutrinoless double beta decay'. If found, this rare process would not only provide the best measurement by far of the neutrino's mass, but would also prove that unlike all other particles, the neutrino is its own antiparticle. If true, this would give a big clue to physics at the 'grand unification' scale, where all forces are (perhaps!) unified. We also have other neutrino projects, work on the proposed international linear collider, and some theoretical activities, all largely funded on other grants. These projects benefit greatly from being co-sited with the rolling grant. All these projects contribute to the intellectually exciting environment that is UCL high energy physics.