University of Sheffield Particle Physics Rolling Grant - ATLAS, ATLAS upgrade; GridPP, T2K, JPARC future programme; EURECA and R&D

我们在谢菲尔德大学的粒子物理学滚动资助下进行的研究，试图推进对有关宇宙起源和构成的一些最重要问题的理解。其中一个大问题是了解是什么赋予了基本粒子质量。我们在日内瓦欧洲核子研究中心（CERN）的大型强子对撞机（LHC）上进行的大型ATLAS实验的一部分工作就是针对这个问题，特别是看看著名的希格斯玻色子是否存在。我们所拥有的解释粒子质量的最佳理论预测它应该在那里。我们将在分析大量数据方面发挥关键作用，预计很快就会有这一令人兴奋的发现。ATLAS的另一项研究将是确定所谓的超对称（SUSY）理论是否正确。这是我们了解粒子如何在高能下相互作用的最佳前景，它本身也预示着一类新的粒子。这个概念指出，对于每一个已知的基本粒子，都存在一个超级伙伴粒子。为了寻找这些粒子，我们花了许多年的时间开发了现在安装在ATLAS上的关键硅技术。现在我们已经准备好让我们的软件在分析数据方面发挥关键作用，希望能发现它们的存在。超对称性理论的一个含义是，最稳定的新粒子，即所谓的最轻超对称粒子（LSP），可能在整个宇宙中非常丰富，约占其质量的25%。这将很容易解释物理学中的一个重大谜团，即所谓的暗物质，天文学家通过它对恒星和星系的引力效应看到了暗物质。我们的团队开创了在实验室中直接寻找暗物质粒子的技术，并参与了一个新的跨国合资企业，EURECA。这将建造一个吨级的设备，使用低温超导体来进行新的搜索。我们将在如何保护实验免受自然背景粒子（如介子）影响的关键方面做出贡献。宇宙中的另一个谜团是其最丰富的粒子中微子的奇怪特性。直到最近才发现它的质量很小，并且在空间传播时很容易在三种不同的“味道”之间改变形式。其中的细节尚不完全清楚，但已知的是，如果正确地解开它可能会回答另一个大问题，为什么宇宙中反物质如此之少。我们正在通过参与在日本进行的大型国际T2K中微子束实验来研究这些问题。我们正在建造探测器的一个关键部件，并将在两年内开始分析数据以解开这些问题。T2K可能不会完成全部工作，所以我们已经在英国发起了一项新的中微子探测器概念的工作，基于液态氩，为FJNE计划做出贡献。我们计划建立测试设备，使下一代中微子实验能够遵循T2K。这也与我们在加速器技术（MICE）上的工作有关，我们正在建造测试束靶。这是迈向终极设施——中微子工厂的关键一步。我们正在研究UKNF项目中的关键技术。最后，为这些基础研究开发的许多硬件和计算机代码在我们的主要研究之外也有很大的相关性。这样的例子有很多，涉及十多家英国公司的项目。例如，我们与Corus有限公司在中子探测新技术方面的合作，使我们能够开发新的监测器，以在港口探测核材料的非法运输。这将继续下去，并扩大到医疗应用。我们对暗物质的研究为地下科学建立了一个新的国家机构——博尔比实验室。在这里，我们启动了一个关于气候变化的新项目SKY，以探索漫画射线对云形成的影响。

Our research with the particle physics rolling grant at Sheffield attempts to progress understanding of some of the most important questions concerning the origins and make-up of the Universe. One of these big questions is to understand what gives fundamental particles their mass. Part of our work on the huge ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in Geneva is aimed at this question, in particular to see if the famous Higgs Boson particle exists. The best theories we have to explain particle mass predict that it should be there. We will play a key role in analysing the vast amount of data soon expected to make this exciting discovery. Another search at ATLAS will be to determine if the so-called supersymmetry (SUSY) theory is correct. This is our best prospect for understanding how particles interact at high energy and itself predicts a new class of particles. The concept states that for every known fundamental particle there exists a super-partner particle. We worked for many years developing the key silicon technology now installed in ATLAS to search for these particles. Now we are ready with our software to play a key role in analysing the data that will hopefully discover that they exist. One of the implications of SUSY theory is the likelihood that the most stable new particle, the so-called lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP), probably is very abundant throughout the Universe, making up about 25% of its mass. This would easily explain one of the big mysteries in physics, the so-called Dark Matter seen by astronomers from its gravitational effects on stars and galaxies. Our group has pioneered techniques to search directly for dark matter particles in the laboratory and is participating in a new multi-national venture, EURECA. This will build a tonne-sized device using low temperature superconductors to perform a new search. We will contribute to the key aspect of how to shield the experiment from natural background particles, like muons. Another mystery in the Universe are the strange properties of its most abundant particle, the neutrino. This has only recently been found to have a small mass and to readily change form between three different 'flavours' while propagating through space. Details of this are not fully understood but it is known that if properly unravelled it might answer another big question, why there is so little anti-matter in the Universe. We are working on these questions through participation in the big international T2K neutrino beam experiments in Japan. We are building a key component of the detectors and will, within two years, start to analyse the data to unravel these issues. T2K probably will not do a full job, so we have instigated in the UK work on a new neutrino detector concept, based on liquid argon, contributing to the FJNE programme. We plan to build test devices to enable the next generation of neutrino experiments to follow T2K. This is linked also to our work on accelerator technology, MICE, where we are building test beam targets. This is a vital step towards the ultimate facility, a neutrino factory. We are working on key technology for this within the UKNF project. Finally, much of the hardware and computer code developed for these fundamental studies have great relevance well outside our main research. There are many examples, involving projects with a dozen UK companies. For instance, our work with Corus Ltd. on new techniques for neutron detection, has allowed development of new monitors to detect illicit transport of nuclear materials at ports. This will continue now and broaden into medical applications. Our dark matter work has produced a new national facility for underground science, the Boulby laboratory. Here we have started a new project on climate change, SKY, to explore the effect of comic rays on cloud formation.