Particle Physics STFC Consolidated Grant 2012

实验粒子物理学在最小的物质粒子、夸克和轻子以及它们之间的作用力的水平上解决了一些关于宇宙结构和行为的基本问题。我们正在探索大型强子对撞机(LHC)粒子的基本性质，并通过开发和使用新的探测系统来探索暗物质的本质。我们正在为CERN大型强子对撞机的ATLAS项目的准备工作做出贡献，该项目将于2009年开始获取数据。我们已经建造并委托使用电子系统和驱动它们的软件。从2009年起，我们将在数据可用时进行分析。特别是，我们将搜索希格斯玻色子存在的数据证据，希格斯玻色子是粒子物理标准模型中现存的关键缺失元素之一，以及预计将存在的超对称粒子和其他奇异现象。我们还计划更好地了解顶夸克的性质和质子的结构。宇宙学测量确定，暗物质占宇宙能量密度的五倍于我们所知的粒子。虽然暗物质的存在是从其引力相互作用中推断出来的，但地球实验室尚未直接探测到它。直接探测实验试图观察到暗物质在目标探测器核上的散射。为了探索这些基本问题，我们成立了一个新的暗物质小组，参与在DEAP/CLEAN上进行的世界领先的暗物质搜索，DEAP/CLEAN是一种具有独特的缩放到多吨质量的液体Ar探测器，并与DMTPC探测器开发计划一起测量暗物质风，它可以将暗物质诱导的反冲信号与地球通过银河系暗物质晕的运动关联起来，与相对各向同性的陆地背景不同。

Experimental particle physics addresses some of the fundamental questions about the structure and behaviour of theUniverse at the level of the smallest particles of matter, the quarks and the leptons, and the forces acting between them. We are exploring fundamental properties of particles at the the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and also exploring the nature of dark matter by developing and employing novel detection systems.We are contributing to the preparation of the ATLAS project at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN that willbegin taking data in 2009. We have constructed and commissioned electronic systems and the software that drives them.From 2009 onwards we will be analysing the data as it becomes available. In particular we will be searching the data forevidence of the existence of the Higgs boson, one of the key missing elements of the Standard Model of particle physicsat present, and for supersymmetric particles and other exotic phenomena, that are expected to exist. We are alsoplanning to understand better the properties of the top quark and the structure of the proton.Beneficiaries.Cosmological measurements determine that dark matter makes up five times more of the energy density of the universe than the particles we know of. Although the existence of dark matter is inferred from its gravitational interactions, it has not yet been directly detected in terrestrial laboratories. Direct detection experiments seek to observe dark matter scattering on target detector nuclei. To explore these fundamental issues, we have set up a new dark matter group to participate in a world-leading dark matter search on DEAP/CLEAN, a liquid Argon detector with unique potential for scaling to multi-tonne masses, and with the DMTPC detector development program to measure the dark matter wind, which can correlate a dark matter-induced recoil signal with the earth's motion through the galactic dark matter halo, distinct from relatively isotropic terrestrial backgrounds.