Measurement of the Higgs Sector Through Decays to B-quarks

该奖项将为在欧洲核子研究中心(CERN)的大型强子对撞机(LHC)上从事ATLAS实验的石溪大学小组提供支持。CERN是一家位于瑞士日内瓦的粒子物理实验室。大型强子对撞机和大型粒子探测器ATLAS是利用美国国家科学基金会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，它解释了宇宙中形成物质的已知粒子的存在和相互间的作用力。这一努力取得了成功。实验的下一步是研究这种新发现的粒子的性质和特征，作为实验室，看看它的行为是否如SM预测的那样，或者是否存在偏差，表明标准模型(BSM)之外的新物理证据，例如，可能解释神秘的“暗物质”的存在，这种物质构成了宇宙的如此大的质量。大型强子对撞机目前正处于第二次运行中，能量几乎是之前探索的两倍，事件样本也显著增加。在这种更高的能量下，随着当前运行的更高的事件统计，以及通过进一步升级大型强子对撞机和ATLAS，BSM物理的证据可能会出现。分析上，为了促进对希格斯玻色子的详细研究和寻找其他新的物质状态，石溪小组将研究含有b夸克喷注的终态，重点是推进对具有越来越高的横向动量的b喷注的识别。在技术方面，该小组正在进行ATLAS内跟踪器ITK的第二阶段升级，以用于高亮度大型强子对撞机。本文的工作主要集中在两个方面：一是用改进后的探测器模拟高横动量射流的b标记性能，二是研制了ITK条形探测器的数据采集系统。通过这项工作，石溪团队的更广泛影响努力包括开发最先进的软件和计算工具，以及本科生和研究生以及博士后研究人员直接参与尖端科学研究和仪器开发。这些努力有助于为其他领域的未来创新和一般经济发展奠定基础。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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 to a Stony Brook University 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 study the properties and characteristics of this newly discovered particle as a laboratory to see if it behaves as the SM predicts or if there are deviations suggesting evidence for new 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 from the current run and by means of further upgrades of the LHC and ATLAS to follow.Analytically, to facilitate a detailed study of the Higgs Boson and search for other new states of matter, the Stony Brook group will be studying final states containing b-quark jets, with focus on advancing the identification of b-jets with ever high transverse momentum. On the technical side, the group is engaged in the Phase II upgrade of the ATLAS inner tracker, called the ITK, for the high luminosity LHC. The work concentrates on two areas: simulation studies of the b-tagging performance for high transverse momentum jets with the upgraded detector, and development of the data acquisition system for the ITK strip detector. Through this work, the Stony Brook group's broader impacts efforts include development of state-of-the-art software and computing tools, and the direct participation of undergraduate and graduate students, and post-doctoral researchers in cutting edge scientific research and instrumentation development. Such efforts help to lay the groundwork for future innovations in other areas, and for general economic development.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.