Birmingham Experimental Particle Physics Consolidated Grant 2022-25

伯明翰实验粒子物理综合补助金 2022-25

• 批准号: ST/W000652/1
• 负责人: Paul Newman
• 金额: $ 467.65万
• 依托单位: University of Birmingham
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ST%2FW000652%2F1
• 关键词: Birmingham; Experimental; Particle; Physics; Consolidated

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, as well as other aspects of the unique capabilities of the CERN accelerator complex. We study the particle collisions and decays observed in these experiments with the aim of determining the ultimate structure of matter and the forces of nature.We have held senior leadership positions in the ATLAS experiment over the years. ATLAS is designed to explore a wealth of particle physics topics at the highest energies ever reached in the laboratory. Of the billion collisions taking place in the experiment per second, only a tiny fraction can be recorded permanently for analysis. Our group built, maintains and operates a major part of the highly sophisticated on-detector electronics (trigger system) which has the task of selecting the most interesting events and reducing the data rate by a factor of 1000 within two millionths of a second after collisions. We are also very active in analysing the resulting data, with a strong team working on the detailed properties of the Higgs boson, the production and decays of the even more massive top quark and the subtle interactions between the carriers of the weak and electromagnetic forces (the W and Z bosons and the photon).Beyond ATLAS, the group is prominent in studying the decays of heavy quarks, which offer complementary sensitivity to new phenomena. The huge rates of beauty quark production in LHCb gives access to extremely rare decays, a Birmingham speciality being those of beauty baryons (combinations of three quarks similar to protons and neutrons). Our NA62 group studies particles containing strange quarks called kaons, including the ultra-rare kaon decay to a pion and two neutrinos, which happens only once in every 10 billion decays. Using the data taken so far, we have reported the most convincing observation of this decay so far, and will go on to study it further in future, exploiting its particular sensitivity to new physics.The LHC will remain the energy frontier facility in particle physics for a further two decades. An ambitious programme to upgrade both accelerator and detectors is underway. Every year after the upgrade (from 2027) will deliver the same number of collisions as ten years before, offering enormous new discovery potential, but also creating a very challenging experimental environment. For ATLAS, we are playing a major role in the construction of a much more radiation-hard and higher performance tracking detector and an upgraded trigger to handle the ten times larger data rate. Our LHCb and NA62 teams are also working on upgrades for future phases in the same era.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. They also include preparations for DUNE, the largest-scale experiment ever to study the elusive neutrino particles; we are transferring our electronics expertise developed on ATLAS to contribute to DUNE data colection.We are active in preparations for next generation collider facilities, taking leadership roles in projects that plan to collide all combinations of electrons and protons and performing R&D into the detectors that will be required, including a growing interest in precision timing measurements. In another strand of our R&D, we are applying detectors developed in particle physics to new medical techniques such as hadron beam therapy.

粒子物理学是一个捕捉公众想象力的主题，当发生重大发现（例如希格斯玻色子）时，可以成为头条新闻。由于已经在CERN大型强子对撞机（LHC）中收集了大型数据集，并且将来的前景更多，我们正处于该领域非常激动人心的时刻。伯明翰拥有一个平衡的实验计划，以能量和精度利用LHC的全部范围，以及CERN Accelerator Complex的独特功能的其他方面。我们研究了这些实验中观察到的粒子碰撞和衰变，目的是确定物质的最终结构和自然力量。多年来，我们在Atlas实验中担任了高级领导地位。 Atlas旨在探索实验室有史以来最高能量的大量粒子物理主题。在每秒实验中发生的十亿碰撞中，只能永久记录一小部分以进行分析。我们的小组构建，维护和运营高度复杂的OnDetector电子（触发系统）的主要部分，该项目的任务是选择最有趣的事件，并在碰撞后一秒钟内将数据速率降低了1000倍。 We are also very active in analysing the resulting data, with a strong team working on the detailed properties of the Higgs boson, the production and decays of the even more massive top quark and the subtle interactions between the carriers of the weak and electromagnetic forces (the W and Z bosons and the photon).Beyond ATLAS, the group is prominent in studying the decays of heavy quarks, which offer complementary sensitivity to new现象。 LHCB中美容夸克的生产速度很高，可以访问极为罕见的腐烂，伯明翰的特色菜是美容baryons的特色菜（三种与质子和中子相似的夸克的组合）。我们的Na62小组研究粒子，这些粒子包含奇怪的夸克，包括Kaons，其中包括呈锥细胞的Ultra-Rare Kaon腐烂和两个中微子，每100亿腐烂一次。到目前为止，我们已经报道了到目前为止对这种衰变最有说服力的观察结果，并将继续在将来进一步研究它，利用其对新物理学的特殊敏感性。LHC将在粒子物理学中仍然是粒子物理学的能量前沿设施。正在进行一个雄心勃勃的计划，以升级加速器和探测器。升级后的每一年（从2027年开始）将带来与十年前相同数量的碰撞，具有巨大的新发现潜力，但也创造了一个非常具有挑战性的实验环境。对于Atlas来说，我们在建造更高的辐射和更高性能跟踪探测器以及升级的触发器方面发挥了重要作用，以处理更大的数据速率。我们的LHCB和NA62团队也在同一时代进行未来阶段的升级。该小组在非偏城粒子物理领域具有各种快速发展的兴趣。其中包括News-G实验，我们正在开发新型的球形气体探测器，以在其质量区域中寻找神秘的暗物质颗粒，但尚未得到很好的探索。它们还包括制备沙丘，这是有史以来研究难以捉摸的中微子颗粒的最大规模实验。我们正在转移基于Atlas开发的电子专业知识，以促进沙丘数据认识。我们积极准备为下一代对撞机设施做准备，在计划碰撞电子和质子的所有组合的项目中发挥领导作用，并将R＆D进行探测器，包括对精确的定时测量的兴趣，包括越来越多的探测器。在我们的研发的另一领域中，我们将在粒子物理学中开发的探测器应用于强子束疗法等新型医疗技术。