Responsive RAs for the Birmingham Experimental Particle Physics Programme

粒子物理学是一门吸引公众想象力的学科，当有重大发现（如希格斯玻色子）时，它可以成为头条新闻。欧洲核子研究中心大型强子对撞机（LHC）已经收集了大量数据，未来还有更多的前景，我们正处于该领域一个非常激动人心的时刻。伯明翰有一个平衡的运行实验计划，充分利用大型强子对撞机在能量和精度方面的能力。通过这项建议，我们计划招募两名新的研究人员，以加强我们对ATLAS和LHCb实验中观察到的粒子碰撞和衰变的研究，旨在寻找有关物质最终结构和自然力的新线索。在ATLAS中，我们将研究非常罕见的过程，其中光子对碰撞并通过量子环相互作用。在LHCb中，我们将寻找暗光子，这些粒子可能会为暗物质的未知性质提供线索，甚至是暗能量，这些暗能量从天文学上被认为主导着宇宙的结构。该小组在粒子物理学的非对撞机领域有各种快速发展的兴趣。其中包括NEWS-G实验，我们正在开发新型球形气体探测器，以在尚未被充分探索的质量区域中搜索神秘的暗物质粒子。其中一个拟议的立场是打算带头安装一个球形气体探测器实验在一个深矿井在博尔比，约克郡。我们还积极筹备下一代对撞机设施，目前的研发重点是所需的探测器，这些探测器必须在辐射剂量非常高的困难环境中提供超精确的位置和定时测量。最后一个职位将在我们最先进的洁净室和辐照设施中开发两种最有前途的基于硅传感器的新探测器技术。

Particle physics is a subject that captures the public imagination and can become headline news when major discoveries take place, such as that of the Higgs boson. With a large data set already collected at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and the prospect of much more in the future, we are at a very exciting moment in the field. Birmingham has a balanced programme of running experiments, exploiting the full reach of the LHC in both energy and precision. Through this proposal, we plan to recruit two new researchers to enhance our studies of the particle collisions and decays observed in the ATLAS and LHCb experiments, with the aim of searching for new clues as to the ultimate structure of matter and the forces of nature. In ATLAS, we will study very rare processes in which pairs of photons collide and interact through quantum loops. In LHCb we will look for dark photons, particles that may give clues as to the unknown nature of the Dark Matter or even Dark Energy that is known from astronomy to dominate the structure of the universe.The group has various fast-developing interests in non-collider areas of particle physics. These include the NEWS-G experiment, where we are developing novel spherical gas detectors to search for mysterious dark matter particles in a region of their mass that is not yet well explored. One of the proposed positions is intended to spearhead the installation of a spherical gas detector experiment in a deep mine in Boulby, Yorkshire. We are also active in preparations for next generation collider facilities, where the current focus in R&D into the detectors that will be required, which have to provide ultra-precise position and timing measurements in a difficult environment with very high radiation doses. The final requested position will work on the development of two of the most promising new detector technologies based on silicon sensors in our state-of-the-art clean rooms and irradiation facilities.