ATLAS preparation and exploitation; neutrino physics with T2K, MICE and Neutrino Factory; searches for SUSY dark matter and astrophysical neutrinos

这项提议旨在探索相关的新基础物理学的三个领域，这将有助于更好地理解宇宙是如何产生的，以及为什么它具有我们所看到的形式：（1）用欧洲核子研究中心（日内瓦）的巨型ATLAS探测器探测新超对称（SUSY）粒子和希格斯玻色子：超对称性理论提供了我们最好的理论来解释为什么目前的粒子物理学标准模型在高能量下会崩溃，比如在创造宇宙的大爆炸中会发生。人们非常兴奋和期待，当ATLAS打开时，我们将发现并开始理解预测存在的全新粒子谱，包括著名的希格斯玻色子，被认为是质量的起源，以及超对称的“方”和“胶子”。我们在谢菲尔德的工作现在集中在ATLAS中心硅探测器的最终建造和测试，用于测量实验中产生的粒子的软件开发，以及用ATLAS数据搜索超对称粒子和希格斯玻色子。(2)加速器和空间产生的中微子的新特性：现在已知中微子是宇宙中最常见的粒子，有三种类型，它们具有非常小但不同的质量，并且这三种类型可以在它们穿过空间或物质时从一种转变为另一种。然而，为什么会这样，绝对质量到底是什么，以及所有这些对物质和宇宙结构的影响仍然不确定。我们的努力集中在两个方面：（a）利用即将在日本建造的T2 K探测器和最终的中微子工厂，对控制中微子振荡的参数进行精确测量;（B）努力从太空中寻找高能中微子，这可能会告诉我们更多的中微子特性，但也会给我们新的见解，了解宇宙中许多非常激烈的天体物理来源，如活动星系核。对于前者，我们正在开发专门的中微子生产目标和新的探测器技术，用于T2 K和基于液氩和蒸发器的中微子工厂。对于中微子天体物理学，我们正在开发新的声学和光探测技术，用于拟议中的新公里级深海或冰实验。(3)寻找暗物质：宇宙中只有0.5%的能量物质被很好地理解。在我们所知的物质中，大约80%是不发光的暗物质，最有可能是由大爆炸中产生的一组新的弱相互作用粒子组成的。全世界都在努力探测这些被称为WIMP的粒子。谢菲尔德集团与ZEPLIN和DRIFT团队合作，在Boulby矿的地下建造了世界领先的新型探测器，这些探测器基于新颖的液体氙和气体技术。现在的努力是针对利用这些数据来寻找WIMP，并且随着越来越多的国际合作者，开发更大的吨级探测器，可以灵敏地探测到预测与物质相互作用能力最小的WIMP。这里一个令人兴奋的方面是解释暗物质的结果在新的超对称粒子相关的搜索在ATLAS进行，并与中微子的新出现的属性，共同改善我们的宇宙结构的整体图片。

This proposal is directed at exploration of three areas of related new fundamental physics that will help understand better how the Universe was created and why it has the form that we see: (1) Searches with the giant ATLAS detector at CERN (Geneva) for new supersymmetry (SUSY) particles and the Higgs boson: SUSY provides our best theory to explain why the current standard model of particle physics breaks down at high energies, such as would occur in the Big Bang that created the Universe. There is great excitement and anticipation that when ATLAS switches on we will discover and start to understand a whole new spectrum of particles predicted to exist, including the famous Higgs Boson, believed to be the origin of mass, and supersymmetric 'squarks' and 'gluinos'. Our work at Sheffield is focussed now on final construction and testing of the central silicon detector of ATLAS, development of software for measuring particles produced within the experiment and searches for SUSY particles and the Higgs boson with ATLAS data. (2) Searches for new properties of the neutrino produced in accelerators and from space: It is now known that neutrinos are the most common particle in the Universe, that there are three types, that they have very small but different masses, and that the three types can transform (oscillate) from one to another as they pass through space or matter. However, why this is so, what exactly the absolute masses are and how all this impacts on the very structure of matter and the universe is still not certain. Our efforts here focus on two areas: (a) work towards precise measurement of the parameters that govern neutrino oscillation using the upcoming T2K detectors in Japan and eventually a neutrino factory; and (b) work towards searching for high energy neutrinos from space that might tell us more of their properties but also give us new insight into the many very violent astrophysical sources in the Universe, such as active galactic nuclei. For the former we are developing specialist neutrino production targets and new detector technologies for T2K and the neutrino factory based on liquid argon and scintillators. For neutrino astrophysics we are developing novel acoustic and light detection techniques for use in proposed new km-scale deep sea or ice experiments. (3) The search for dark matter: Only 0.5% of the energy-matter content of the Universe is well understood. Of the matter content we know about 80% is non-luminous dark matter most likely composed of a new set of weakly interacting particles created in the Big Bang. There is a world-wide effort to detect these particles, called WIMPs. Working with the ZEPLIN and DRIFT teams, the Sheffield group has built world-leading new detectors underground at Boulby mine based on novel liquid xenon and gas-based technologies. Efforts now are directed at exploiting data from these to search for WIMPs and, with growing numbers of international collaborators, developing much larger ton-scale detectors that can have sensitivity to detect WIMPs with the very smallest predicted capacity to interact with matter. An exciting aspect here is to interpret dark matter results in terms of the new supersymmetry particles relevant to the searches undertaken at ATLAS, and to relate this with the newly emerging properties of the neutrino jointly to improve our whole picture of the structure of the Universe.