Sussex EPP 2012 Consolidated Grant Supplement

苏塞克斯实验粒子物理小组参与了粒子物理的三个分支：欧洲核子研究中心大型强子对撞机的ATLAS实验；加拿大SNOLAB的SNO+中微子实验；以及法国伊尔因格勒诺布尔的nEDM实验。这三个实验都探索了自然界的一些最基本的性质，并试图为新的物理现象找到证据。苏塞克斯在分析ATLAS数据方面做出了领先的贡献，寻找质子相互作用中超对称性的证据，在质子相互作用中，电子、Muon或taus在终态产生。超对称性的发现将通过揭示我们宇宙中难以捉摸的暗物质的本质，为新的物理学提供证据，并可能在粒子物理学和宇宙学之间建立联系。苏塞克斯还通过参与触发操作以及触发系统核心软件的开发和维护，对ATLAS触发系统做出了重要贡献(就像实验的“大脑”一样)。该小组还参与了ATLAS触发系统未来升级的准备工作。苏塞克斯在正在进行的中子电偶极矩(EDM)搜索方面提供了实质性的智力领导。发现一个EDM将代表SM以外的物理学的明确证据；相反，任何EDM的缺乏，在我们所瞄准的敏感性，将对新物理的模型提供极其严格的限制。这项工作也提供了与宇宙学的联系，因为任何中子EDM的大小是由相同的CP-破坏机制决定的，这是宇宙中物质对反物质的支配地位。苏塞克斯在SNO+实验中扮演着关键的角色，它领导着校准和数据流活动。该小组还参与了关键的无中微子双β衰变分析，这既可以确定中微子的质量，也可以回答中微子是否是它自己的反粒子这个长期存在的问题。小组成员还参与了新的实验，在较小的水平上，直接进行暗物质搜索。

The Sussex Experimental Particle Physics group is involved in three strands of Particle Physics: the ATLAS experiment atCERN's Large Hadron Collider; the SNO+ neutrino experiment at SNOLAB in Canada; and the nEDM experiment at ILL inGrenoble, France. All three experiments probe some of the most fundamental properties of Nature and seek to findevidence for new physics phenomena.Sussex makes leading contributions to the analysis of ATLAS data, searching for evidence of supersymmetry in protonprotoninteractions where electrons, muons or taus are produced in the final state. The discovery of supersymmetry wouldprovide evidence for new physics as well as possibly a link between particle physics and cosmology, by uncovering thenature of the elusive Dark Matter in our universe. Sussex also makes important contribution to the ATLAS trigger system(which acts like the experiment's "brain") -- through participation in trigger operations and in the development andmaintenance core software for the trigger system. The group is also involved in preparations for future upgrades of theATLAS trigger system.Sussex provides substantial intellectual leadership in the ongoing search for an electric dipole moment (EDM) of theneutron. Finding an EDM would represent unambiguous evidence for physics beyond the SM; conversely, the absence ofany EDM, at the sensitivity for which we are aiming, would provide extremely severe constraints on models of new physics.This work also provides a link to cosmology, since the size of any neutron EDM is determined by the same CP-violatingmechanism that underlies the dominance of matter over antimatter in the Universe.Sussex plays a crucial role in the SNO+ experiment, where it leads the calibration and the dataflow activities. The group isalso becoming involved in the crucial neutrinoless double-beta decay analysis, which could both determine the mass of theneutrino and answer the long-standing question of whether the neutrino is its own antiparticle.Group members are also becoming involved, at a smaller level, in new experiments for direct Dark Matter searches.