Experimental Particle Physics at the University of Edinburgh
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Edinburgh
Department Name: Sch of Physics and Astronomy
Abstract
The Edinburgh Experimental Particle Physics group is currently working in three different running experiments and we are also working on several future projects.
The ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC): ATLAS is one of two detectors able to study a wide variety of particles created from the collision of protons at the highest energies ever created, and it addresses fundamental questions. The most well known is that of the origin of mass. The beautiful symmetry which underlies our understanding of particle interactions inherently demands that all particles are massless. This cannot be the case, and the elegant solution put forward is now known as the Higgs mechanism. The discovery of the Higgs boson has verified this, and now we must measure its properties in great detail. Another area addressed by ATLAS is the search for new heavy particles such as new heavy Higgs like particles or supersymmetric particles, which are predicted in models trying to address shortcomings of the Standard Model (SM), such as why there is dark matter.
The LHCb experiment at the LHC. Prior to the 1960s, it had been thought that matter and anti-matter would behave in the same way. However, it was discovered that this symmetry was violated, and that matter does not behave in an identical way to anti-matter. This is embodied in the phenomenon of CP violation and is essential to the understanding of the early universe. Shortly after the big bang there were equal amounts of matter and anti-matter. During expansion and cooling, matter and anti-matter would have annihilated into photons to leave a universe full of radiation, but no stars and galaxies. It was shown in 1967 by Sakarov that if three conditions, including CP violation, were met, then it would be possible for a small imbalance of matter over anti-matter to accrue, which would be sufficient to explain the existence of the universe. LHCb measures differences (CP violation) in behaviour of particles and antiparticle with at least one b or anti-b quark and searches for very rare decays of these particles, which could be affected by heavy unobserved particles.
The LUX-ZEPLIN experiment, which is the world's most sensitive apparatus searching for dark matter. It is well known that some 27% of the Universe is comprised of Dark Matter - that is matter of some form which does not interact in a way that produces radiation, or other easy to observe signatures. There are many theoretical candidates and resolution of this mystery must include the direct detection of our own galactic dark matter. We lead the collaboration's efforts to detect particularly well-motivated possibilities including axions and dark phonons.
We are also working hard on the design, development and construction of the upgraded detectors at the LHC for around 2020. The intensity of the beams will be increased and the data rates recorded by the detectors will increase by orders of magnitude. This requires building new detectors for precisely measuring trajectories of longlived particles, for measuring Cherenkov photons to determine their speed, and faster and more powerful simulation, and new ways to handle the massive data rates.
We have now completed the construction of the LUX-ZEPLIN project, expected to dominate direct searches for dark matter in the next decade. We work on simulations, control systems for the 10 tonnes of liquid xenon, and analysis.
We have grown our neutrino physics activities in the DUNE and Hyper-K experiments to be constructed. One of the most interesting facts of nature is that there are only three species of neutrinos, which until recently were thought to be massless. It is important to measure precisely the "mixing" between the species and to search for CP violation in neutrinos. We have also joined the MicroBooNE and SBND experiments, which will search for new, sterile, neutrinos which interact only via gravity but not with any of the fundamental interactions of the SM.
The ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC): ATLAS is one of two detectors able to study a wide variety of particles created from the collision of protons at the highest energies ever created, and it addresses fundamental questions. The most well known is that of the origin of mass. The beautiful symmetry which underlies our understanding of particle interactions inherently demands that all particles are massless. This cannot be the case, and the elegant solution put forward is now known as the Higgs mechanism. The discovery of the Higgs boson has verified this, and now we must measure its properties in great detail. Another area addressed by ATLAS is the search for new heavy particles such as new heavy Higgs like particles or supersymmetric particles, which are predicted in models trying to address shortcomings of the Standard Model (SM), such as why there is dark matter.
The LHCb experiment at the LHC. Prior to the 1960s, it had been thought that matter and anti-matter would behave in the same way. However, it was discovered that this symmetry was violated, and that matter does not behave in an identical way to anti-matter. This is embodied in the phenomenon of CP violation and is essential to the understanding of the early universe. Shortly after the big bang there were equal amounts of matter and anti-matter. During expansion and cooling, matter and anti-matter would have annihilated into photons to leave a universe full of radiation, but no stars and galaxies. It was shown in 1967 by Sakarov that if three conditions, including CP violation, were met, then it would be possible for a small imbalance of matter over anti-matter to accrue, which would be sufficient to explain the existence of the universe. LHCb measures differences (CP violation) in behaviour of particles and antiparticle with at least one b or anti-b quark and searches for very rare decays of these particles, which could be affected by heavy unobserved particles.
The LUX-ZEPLIN experiment, which is the world's most sensitive apparatus searching for dark matter. It is well known that some 27% of the Universe is comprised of Dark Matter - that is matter of some form which does not interact in a way that produces radiation, or other easy to observe signatures. There are many theoretical candidates and resolution of this mystery must include the direct detection of our own galactic dark matter. We lead the collaboration's efforts to detect particularly well-motivated possibilities including axions and dark phonons.
We are also working hard on the design, development and construction of the upgraded detectors at the LHC for around 2020. The intensity of the beams will be increased and the data rates recorded by the detectors will increase by orders of magnitude. This requires building new detectors for precisely measuring trajectories of longlived particles, for measuring Cherenkov photons to determine their speed, and faster and more powerful simulation, and new ways to handle the massive data rates.
We have now completed the construction of the LUX-ZEPLIN project, expected to dominate direct searches for dark matter in the next decade. We work on simulations, control systems for the 10 tonnes of liquid xenon, and analysis.
We have grown our neutrino physics activities in the DUNE and Hyper-K experiments to be constructed. One of the most interesting facts of nature is that there are only three species of neutrinos, which until recently were thought to be massless. It is important to measure precisely the "mixing" between the species and to search for CP violation in neutrinos. We have also joined the MicroBooNE and SBND experiments, which will search for new, sterile, neutrinos which interact only via gravity but not with any of the fundamental interactions of the SM.
Organisations
Publications
Aad G
(2023)
Search for resonant WZ production in the fully leptonic final state in proton-proton collisions at $$\mathbf {\sqrt{s} = 13}$$ TeV with the ATLAS detector
in The European Physical Journal C
Aad G
(2022)
The ATLAS inner detector trigger performance in pp collisions at 13 TeV during LHC Run 2
in The European Physical Journal C
Aad G
(2023)
Search for heavy long-lived multi-charged particles in the full LHC Run 2 pp collision data at s = 13 TeV using the ATLAS detector
in Physics Letters B
Aad G
(2022)
Search for flavour-changing neutral-current interactions of a top quark and a gluon in pp collisions at $$\sqrt{s}=13$$ TeV with the ATLAS detector
in The European Physical Journal C
Aad G
(2022)
Constraints on Higgs boson production with large transverse momentum using H ? b b ¯ decays in the ATLAS detector
in Physical Review D
Aad G
(2024)
The ATLAS trigger system for LHC Run 3 and trigger performance in 2022
in Journal of Instrumentation
Aad G
(2024)
Determination of the Relative Sign of the Higgs Boson Couplings to W and Z Bosons Using WH Production via Vector-Boson Fusion with the ATLAS Detector.
in Physical review letters
Aad G
(2024)
Observation of WZ? Production in pp Collisions at sqrt[s]=13 TeV with the ATLAS Detector.
in Physical review letters
Aad G
(2022)
Measurement of the energy asymmetry in $$t{\bar{t}}j$$ production at $$13\,$$TeV with the ATLAS experiment and interpretation in the SMEFT framework
in The European Physical Journal C
Aad G
(2024)
Search for non-resonant production of semi-visible jets using Run 2 data in ATLAS
in Physics Letters B
Aad G
(2023)
Search for exclusive Higgs and Z boson decays to ?? and Higgs boson decays to K?? with the ATLAS detector
in Physics Letters B
Aad G
(2023)
Production of ? ( n S ) mesons in Pb + Pb and p p collisions at 5.02 TeV
in Physical Review C
Aad G
(2023)
Measurements of the suppression and correlations of dijets in Pb+Pb collisions at s N N = 5.02 TeV
in Physical Review C
Aad G
(2024)
Combination of Searches for Higgs Boson Pair Production in p p Collisions at s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS Detector
in Physical Review Letters
Aad G
(2023)
Observation of four-top-quark production in the multilepton final state with the ATLAS detector
in The European Physical Journal C
Aad G
(2023)
Tools for estimating fake/non-prompt lepton backgrounds with the ATLAS detector at the LHC
in Journal of Instrumentation
Aad G
(2023)
Measurement of substructure-dependent jet suppression in Pb + Pb collisions at 5.02 TeV with the ATLAS detector
in Physical Review C
Aad G
(2023)
Search for doubly charged Higgs boson production in multi-lepton final states using 139 fb$$^{-1}$$ of proton-proton collisions at $$\sqrt{s}$$ = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector
in The European Physical Journal C
Aad G
(2024)
Search for the Exclusive W Boson Hadronic Decays W^{±}?p^{±}?, W^{±}?K^{±}? and W^{±}??^{±}? with the ATLAS Detector.
in Physical review letters
Aad G
(2023)
Measurement of the Sensitivity of Two-Particle Correlations in pp Collisions to the Presence of Hard Scatterings.
in Physical review letters
Aad G
(2024)
Azimuthal Angle Correlations of Muons Produced via Heavy-Flavor Decays in 5.02 TeV Pb+Pb and pp Collisions with the ATLAS Detector.
in Physical review letters
Aad G
(2023)
Search for dark matter produced in association with a single top quark and an energetic W boson in $$\sqrt{s}=$$ 13 TeV $$pp$$ collisions with the ATLAS detector
in The European Physical Journal C
Aad G
(2023)
New techniques for jet calibration with the ATLAS detector
in The European Physical Journal C
Aad G
(2024)
Search for Light Long-Lived Particles in pp Collisions at sqrt[s]=13 TeV Using Displaced Vertices in the ATLAS Inner Detector.
in Physical review letters
Aad G
(2024)
Search for high-mass resonances in final states with a t -lepton and missing transverse momentum with the ATLAS detector
in Physical Review D
Aad G
(2023)
Strong Constraints on Jet Quenching in Centrality-Dependent p+Pb Collisions at 5.02 TeV from ATLAS.
in Physical review letters
Aad G
(2023)
Search for the charged-lepton-flavor-violating decay Z ? e µ in p p collisions at s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector
in Physical Review D
Aad G
(2024)
Electron and photon energy calibration with the ATLAS detector using LHC Run 2 data
in Journal of Instrumentation
Aad G
(2023)
Search for a new pseudoscalar decaying into a pair of muons in events with a top-quark pair at s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector
in Physical Review D
Aad G
(2024)
Performance of the ATLAS forward proton Time-of-Flight detector in Run 2
in Journal of Instrumentation
Aad G
(2023)
Measurement of the CP properties of Higgs boson interactions with $$\tau $$-leptons with the ATLAS detector
in The European Physical Journal C
Aad G
(2023)
Measurement of Suppression of Large-Radius Jets and Its Dependence on Substructure in Pb+Pb Collisions at sqrt[s_{NN}]=5.02 TeV with the ATLAS Detector.
in Physical review letters
Aad G
(2024)
Studies of the Energy Dependence of Diboson Polarization Fractions and the Radiation-Amplitude-Zero Effect in WZ Production with the ATLAS Detector.
in Physical review letters
Aad G
(2023)
Constraints on spin-0 dark matter mediators and invisible Higgs decays using ATLAS 13 TeV pp collision data with two top quarks and missing transverse momentum in the final state
in The European Physical Journal C