The U.S. ATLAS Research Program: Empowering U.S. Universities for Discoveries at the Energy Frontier

哥伦比亚大学的这项提案要求支持美国地图集研究计划。ATLAS探测器目前正在建造中，准备在瑞士日内瓦欧洲核子研究中心的大型强子对撞机(LHC)上运行，初步数据计划于2007年获取。美国阿特拉斯计划旨在为美国大学科学家、教师团队、博士后、研究生和本科生提供机会，最大限度地利用大型强子对撞机加速器的科学知识。该计划的目标是提供对质量的物理起源的广泛了解，以及它如何与我们关于物质宇宙的其他概念相关联。很可能在大型强子对撞机上发现的新粒子不仅对扩展基本粒子物理学的未知维度很重要，而且对理解宇宙学中的关键问题也很重要。对这些问题的回答将为完成对自然界中的粒子、粒子与之相互作用的力以及它们在我们宇宙的过去和未来中所扮演的角色的统一观点提供重大进展。在这个时候，有异常令人信服的迹象表明，大型强子对撞机所采取的步骤--导致碰撞能量远远超出现有设施的可用能量--将导致特别重要的发现，其影响涉及广泛的基础科学领域。这一建议建立在研究这一新能源制度的特别有力的科学依据上，并受益于国际社会提供主要投资的项目。研究计划将包括与探测器的维护和操作相关的技术工作。该计划的第二个要素是信息技术、软件和计算领域，这将在让美国大学的科学家充分开发大型强子对撞机的潜力方面发挥关键作用。该计划还包括探测器升级的研发，这将需要在大型强子对撞机预期的长期运行期间最大限度地提高物理输出。NSF-ATLAS小组继续扩大其教育和外联方案，特别侧重于高中教师和学生(与QuarkNet密切协调)，并向传统上代表性不足的人口进行外联。美国的Atlas小组计划在ATLAS数据获取之前加强和扩大他们的外联努力，在这份提案中，他们描述了一些将他们的计划覆盖范围扩大到美国以外的想法。

This proposal from Columbia University requests support for the U.S. ATLAS Research Program. The ATLAS detector is currently under construction for operation at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, Geneva, Switzerland with initial data taking scheduled for 2007. The U.S. ATLAS Program aims at providing U.S. university scientists, teams of faculty, postdoctoral, graduate and undergraduate students, with the opportunity to maximize the science from the LHC accelerator. The goal of the Program is to provide a broad based understanding of the physical origin of mass, and how it relates to our other concepts about the material universe. The new particles that may well be found at the LHC are important not only for extending unknown dimensions of the physics of elementary particles, but also for understanding key issues in cosmology. Answers to these questions would provide a major advance toward completing a unified view of the particles in nature, the forces with which particles interact, and their role in the past and future of our universe. This is a time when there are unusually compelling indications that the step taken by the LHC, leading to collision energies far beyond those available at existing facilities, will lead to especially important discoveries with implications over a broad field of fundamental science. This proposal rests on the especially strong scientific case for investigating this new energy regime and benefits from a program in which the international community is providing a major part of the investment. The Research Program will include the technical effort associated with maintenance and operation of the detector. A second element of the program is in the area of information technology, software and computing, which will play a crucial role in allowing scientists at U.S. universities to fully exploit the potential of the LHC. The program also includes R&D for detector upgrades, which will be needed to maximize the physics output during the long period of running expected for the LHC. The NSF-ATLAS groups continue to expand their education and outreach programs, with a particular focus on high school teachers and students (closely coordinated with QuarkNet), and on outreach to traditionally under-represented populations. The U.S. ATLAS group plans on strengthening and expanding their outreach efforts in the run-up to ATLAS data taking and, in this proposal, they describe some ideas for extending their program reach beyond the U.S.