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 have grown our neutrino physics activities in the recent years. 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 have grown our neutrino physics activities in the recent years. 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 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
(2024)
The ATLAS trigger system for LHC Run 3 and trigger performance in 2022
in Journal of Instrumentation
Aad G
(2024)
Combination of Searches for Resonant Higgs Boson Pair Production Using pp Collisions at sqrt[s]=13 TeV with the ATLAS Detector.
in Physical review letters
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)
Search for pair production of third-generation leptoquarks decaying into a bottom quark and a $$\tau $$-lepton with the ATLAS detector
in The European Physical Journal C
Aad G
(2024)
Measurement of the VH,H ? tt process with the ATLAS detector at 13 TeV
in Physics Letters B
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)
Measurements of jet cross-section ratios in 13 TeV proton-proton collisions with ATLAS
in Physical Review D
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)
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)
Measurement of the total cross section and $$\rho $$-parameter from elastic scattering in pp collisions at $$\sqrt{s}=13$$ TeV with the ATLAS detector
in The European Physical Journal C
Aad G
(2024)
Disentangling Sources of Momentum Fluctuations in Xe + Xe and Pb + Pb Collisions with the ATLAS Detector
in Physical Review Letters
Aad G
(2024)
Observation of W?? triboson production in proton-proton collisions at s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector
in Physics Letters B
Aad G
(2023)
Evidence of off-shell Higgs boson production from ZZ leptonic decay channels and constraints on its total width with the ATLAS detector
in Physics Letters B
Aad G
(2024)
Simultaneous energy and mass calibration of large-radius jets with the ATLAS detector using a deep neural network
in Machine Learning: Science and Technology
Aad G
(2024)
Measurement of the Centrality Dependence of the Dijet Yield in p+Pb Collisions at sqrt[s_{NN}]=8.16 TeV 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
(2023)
Search for Higgs boson pair production in association with a vector boson in pp collisions at $$\sqrt{s}=13\,\text {TeV}$$ with the ATLAS detector
in The European Physical Journal C
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)
Measurement of the production of a W boson in association with a charmed hadron in p p collisions at s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector
in Physical Review D
Aad G
(2025)
Combination of searches for singly produced vectorlike top quarks in p p collisions at s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector
in Physical Review D
Aad G
(2024)
Measurement of jet substructure in boosted t t ¯ events with the ATLAS detector using 140 fb - 1 of 13 TeV p p collisions
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
(2024)
Search for the Z? decay mode of new high-mass resonances in pp collisions at s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector
in Physics Letters B
Aad G
(2023)
Observation of Single-Top-Quark Production in Association with a Photon Using the ATLAS Detector.
in Physical review letters
Aad G
(2024)
Simultaneous Unbinned Differential Cross-Section Measurement of Twenty-Four Z + jets Kinematic Observables with the ATLAS Detector
in Physical Review Letters
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
(2024)
Search for the decay of the Higgs boson to a Z boson and a light pseudoscalar particle decaying to two photons
in Physics Letters B
Aad G
(2024)
Beam-induced backgrounds measured in the ATLAS detector during local gas injection into the LHC beam vacuum
in Journal of Instrumentation
Aad G
(2024)
Search for Nearly Mass-Degenerate Higgsinos Using Low-Momentum Mildly Displaced Tracks in pp Collisions at sqrt[s]=13 TeV with the ATLAS Detector.
in Physical review letters
Aad G
(2024)
Measurement of single top-quark production in association with a W boson in p p collisions at s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector
in Physical Review D
Aad G
(2023)
Search for Dark Photons in Rare Z Boson Decays with the ATLAS Detector.
in Physical review letters
Aad G
(2024)
Study of High-Transverse-Momentum Higgs Boson Production in Association with a Vector Boson in the qqbb Final State with the ATLAS Detector.
in Physical review letters
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