Bridging grant application for ATLAS-Canada: Measurements of the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider

我最近被聘为卡尔顿大学ATLAS-加拿大分校的教员，从2016年1月开始。这是一份过渡性拨款的申请，旨在支持我的研究计划两年，直到2018年4月ATLAS-加拿大项目拨款续期，我将参加该项目。我提出的研究计划将加强加拿大在世界上最受推崇的科学努力之一中的作用。 利用大型强子对撞机(LHC)，我们研究了我们世界的基本性质，包括物质的基本构件和宇宙的力。大型强子对撞机产生的能量是世界上所有设备中最高的，并且可以在大爆炸后几分之一秒的时间里复制粒子碰撞，模拟宇宙的条件。阿特拉斯是大型强子对撞机上建造的探测器之一，它记录了产生的碰撞。通过研究这些碰撞，我们了解了宇宙的起源和演化，以及自然规律。 我的研究计划的主要目标是对最近发现的希格斯玻色子进行精确研究：这种基本粒子在其他粒子如何获得质量方面发挥着关键作用。在过去的五年里，我一直积极参与这一努力的前沿，作为卡尔顿大学的教授，我将继续这些努力。在拟议的研究期间，大型强子对撞机将提供一个非常大的数据集，使我们有可能显著扩展对希格斯玻色子的了解。我计划测量希格斯玻色子的整体产生率以及运动学、产生学和衰变性质，并解释这些结果，以寻找超越标准模型的物理证据。 我的研究计划的第二个主题是加入ATLAS-加拿大的工作，设计、生产和表征ATLAS内跟踪器(ITK)探测器升级，该探测器将于2024年在“高亮度大型强子对撞机”(HL-LHC)开始之前安装。该探测器需要在HL-LHC非常恶劣的环境下具有高性能，我将利用我在模拟方面的专业知识来评估不同设计方案(2016)的增益，并为2017年试生产的第一批ITK硅模块的测试做出贡献。 我请求提供资金，以组建一个由一名研究助理和两名研究生组成的小型研究小组，任期为2016年4月至2018年4月。这笔资金将用于支付工资、欧洲核子研究中心的实地工作、出席会议和个人电脑。研究项目的一个非常重要的方面是人员的培训。需要培养的重要技能包括先进的数据分析技术、有效的国际合作以及对尖端技术的经验和理解。这些技能不仅适用于物理学研究，还适用于其他许多领域，如医学物理、金融和预测分析(“大数据”)。

I was recently hired as an ATLAS-Canada faculty member at Carleton University, starting January 2016. This is an application for a bridging grant intended to support my research program for two years until the renewal of the ATLAS-Canada Project grant in April 2018, which I will take part in. My proposed research program will enhance Canada's role in one of the world's most highly regarded scientific endeavours. With the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) we study the fundamental nature of our world, including both the elementary building blocks of matter and the forces of the Universe. The LHC produces the highest energy collisions of any facility in the world, and can reproduce particle collisions which mimic the conditions of the Universe a fraction of a second after the Big Bang. ATLAS is one of the detectors constructed at the LHC and records the resulting collisions. By studying these collisions, we learn about the origin and evolution of the Universe, and the laws of Nature. The primary objective of my research program is to perform precise studies of the recently discovered Higgs boson: the elementary particle that play a key role in how other particles obtain mass. During the past five years, I have been heavily involved at the forefront of this effort and I will continue these efforts as a professor at Carleton University. During the term of the proposed research, the LHC will deliver a very large dataset that makes it possible to significantly extend our knowledge about the Higgs boson. I plan to measure the overall production rate as well as kinematic, production and decay properties of the Higgs boson, and to interpret these results to look for evidence of physics Beyond the Standard Model. A second topic of my research program is to join the ATLAS-Canada effort with the design, production and characterization of the ATLAS inner tracker (ITk) detector upgrade that will be installed in 2024 prior to the start of the "High Luminosity LHC" (HL-LHC). This detector needs to be highly performant in the very harsh environment of the HL-LHC and I will contribute with my expertise in simulations to evaluate the gain from different design scenarios (2016) and contribute to the testing of the first ITk silicon modules from the pre-production in 2017. I request funding to form a small research team consisting of one research associate and two graduate students for the period April 2016 to April 2018. The funding is intended to cover salaries, field work at CERN, conference attendance and personal computers. A very important aspect of the research project is training of the personnel. Important skills to be developed include advanced data analysis techniques, effective international collaboration, and experience with and understanding of cutting-edge technology. These skills are applicable not only to physics research, but also to many other fields such as medical physics, finance and predictive analysis (“big data”).