Experimental Particle Physics at UCL
Lead Research Organisation:
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON
Department Name: Physics and Astronomy
Abstract
Experimental particle physics seeks to study extremely small sizes, or equivalently extremely high energies. It in effect probes the conditions that existed in the universe a fraction of a second after the Big Bang. These unique conditions that we are studying ultimately allowed stars, galaxies, planets & finally life to form & dictate how the universe will evolve far into the future. We are studying the underlying nature of the physical universe in terms of fundamental forces & particles. Experiments capable of reaching these extremes of energy & size are very technically challenging. The challenges include devising precision detectors which can operate in hostile environments, particle accelerators which can achieve high energy collisions, super-sensitive detectors capable of identifying very rare decays with very small 'background noise', high-speed electronics which can read out millions of pieces of information per second, & robust, flexible software which can analyse the data in a distributed computing system all over the world. Thus another consequence of an active particle physics activity is a stimulation of technological developments, the training of people skilled in the development & use of innovative technology & improvements in industrial manufacturing capability. This is a 'rolling grant', which means that it covers a broad variety of particle physics experiments. The rolling grant underpins the base of highly skilled research & technical staff allowing UCL to be a leader in experimental physics at the very highest levels. It provides a measure of career security, as well as travel & equipment money. This also allows the group to function effectively in the training of PhD students & young post-doctoral researchers. Crucially, the scientific advances that this grant will support are grounded in & will be tested by experimental observations. The science this grant will support includes: - Understanding the mechanism that gives particles mass by searching for new fundamental particles such as the Higgs boson & examining in detail the interactions of W bosons (the particles responsible for the weak nuclear force) at the highest energies using the ATLAS detector at CERN's LHC & by measuring very precisely the mass of the W boson using the CDF detector at the Tevatron collider. - Understanding why we live in a universe that is dominated by matter with only a tiny anti-matter component which is at odds with the conditions immediately following the Big Bang when matter & antimatter co-existed in equal amounts. We will study in detail the properties of the neutrino, which is a stable, uncharged, almost massless particle released in radioactive beta decays & decays of unstable particles. The study is performed at the MINOS, NEMO-III & ultimately SuperNEMO (which we are building) experiments that are searching for rare processes where neutrinos change their identity & for rare beta decay processes releasing two electrons & no neutrinos. - Understanding the nature of the strong nuclear force through measurements of the internal structure of the proton using the ZEUS detector at the HERA collider. - Searching for phenomena at extremely high energy which can help to define a more fundamental theory that unifies the twin pillars of 20th century physics: Einstein's theory of General Relativity & Quantum Mechanics. We are searching for the interaction of ultra-high energy neutrinos with the Antarctic ice using the ANITA experiment & R&D towards experiments searching for the exceedingly rare process whereby a muon (a heavy electron type particle) spontaneously converts into an electron. Some of this work is funded on other grants but is underpinned by the technical expertise that is supported by this rolling grant. Continuity & support for the technical base in the UCL High Energy Physics Group & for the young researchers to develop is vital to progress the science & the benefits that it brings.
Organisations
Publications
Aaboud M
(2017)
Search for new high-mass phenomena in the dilepton final state using 36 fb-1 of proton-proton collision data at s = 13 $$ \sqrt{s}=13 $$ TeV with the ATLAS detector
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Aaboud M
(2017)
Search for new phenomena in a lepton plus high jet multiplicity final state with the ATLAS experiment using s = 13 $$ \sqrt{s}=13 $$ TeV proton-proton collision data
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Aaboud M
(2017)
Search for new phenomena in dijet events using 37 fb - 1 of p p collision data collected at s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector
in Physical Review D
Aad G
(2013)
Search for new phenomena in events with three charged leptons at s = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector
in Physical Review D
Aaboud M
(2018)
Search for new phenomena in high-mass final states with a photon and a jet from pp collisions at s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector.
in The European physical journal. C, Particles and fields
Aaboud M
(2018)
Search for new phenomena in high-mass final states with a photon and a jet from pp collisions at s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector.
in The European physical journal. C, Particles and fields
Aaboud M
(2017)
Search for new phenomena with large jet multiplicities and missing transverse momentum using large-radius jets and flavour-tagging at ATLAS in 13 TeV pp collisions
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Aaboud M
(2018)
Search for pair production of heavy vectorlike quarks decaying into hadronic final states in p p collisions at s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector
in Physical Review D
Aaboud M
(2017)
Search for pair production of vector-like top quarks in events with one lepton, jets, and missing transverse momentum in s = 13 $$ \sqrt{s}=13 $$ TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Aaboud M
(2018)
Search for photonic signatures of gauge-mediated supersymmetry in 13 TeV p p collisions with the ATLAS detector
in Physical Review D
Aaboud M
(2018)
Search for Resonant and Nonresonant Higgs Boson Pair Production in the bb[over ¯]t^{+}t^{-} Decay Channel in pp Collisions at sqrt[s]=13 TeV with the ATLAS Detector.
in Physical review letters
Aad G
(2012)
Search for resonant top quark plus jet production in t t ¯ + jets events with the ATLAS detector in p p collisions at s = 7 TeV
in Physical Review D
Aad G
(2012)
Search for resonant W Z production in the W Z ? l ? l ' l ' channel in ( s ) = 7 TeV p p collisions with the ATLAS detector
in Physical Review D
Aaboud M
(2018)
Search for resonant WZ production in the fully leptonic final state in proton-proton collisions at s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector
in Physics Letters B
Aaboud M
(2017)
Search for squarks and gluinos in events with an isolated lepton, jets, and missing transverse momentum at s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector
in Physical Review D
Aad G
(2012)
Search for supersymmetry in events with three leptons and missing transverse momentum in v[s]=7 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector.
in Physical review letters
Aaboud M
(2017)
Search for supersymmetry in final states with two same-sign or three leptons and jets using 36 fb-1 of $$ \sqrt{s}=13 $$ TeV pp collision data with the ATLAS detector
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Aad G
(2012)
Search for tb resonances in proton-proton collisions at vs=7 TeV with the ATLAS detector.
in Physical review letters
Aaboud M
(2018)
Search for the Decay of the Higgs Boson to Charm Quarks with the ATLAS Experiment.
in Physical review letters
Aaboud M
(2017)
Search for the Dimuon Decay of the Higgs Boson in p p Collisions at s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS Detector
in Physical Review Letters
Aaboud M
(2018)
Search for the direct production of charginos and neutralinos in final states with tau leptons in s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector.
in The European physical journal. C, Particles and fields
Aad G
(2012)
Search for top and bottom squarks from gluino pair production in final states with missing transverse energy and at least three b-jets with the ATLAS detector
in The European Physical Journal C
Aaboud M
(2017)
Search for top quark decays t ? qH, with H ? ??, in s = 13 $$ \sqrt{s}=13 $$ TeV pp collisions using the ATLAS detector
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Aaboud M
(2018)
Search for W' ? tb decays in the hadronic final state using pp collisions at s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector
in Physics Letters B
Aaboud M
(2017)
Searches for the Z? decay mode of the Higgs boson and for new high-mass resonances in pp collisions at s = 13 $$ \sqrt{s}=13 $$ TeV with the ATLAS detector
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Aaboud M
(2017)
Studies of Z? production in association with a high-mass dijet system in pp collisions at s = 8 $$ \sqrt{s}=8 $$ TeV with the ATLAS detector
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Aaboud M
(2017)
Study of ordered hadron chains with the ATLAS detector
in Physical Review D
Aaboud M
(2017)
Study of the material of the ATLAS inner detector for Run 2 of the LHC
in Journal of Instrumentation
Aaboud M
(2017)
Study of W W ? and W Z ? production in p p collisions at s = 8 TeV and search for anomalous quartic gauge couplings with the ATLAS experiment.
in The European physical journal. C, Particles and fields
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
Aaboud M
(2017)
Top-quark mass measurement in the all-hadronic t t ¯ $$ t\overline{t} $$ decay channel at s = 8 $$ \sqrt{s}=8 $$ TeV with the ATLAS detector
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Aad G
(2022)
Two-particle Bose-Einstein correlations in $${ pp }$$ collisions at $$\mathbf {\sqrt{s} = 13}$$ TeV measured with the ATLAS detector at the LHC
in The European Physical Journal C
Related Projects
| Project Reference | Relationship | Related To | Start | End | Award Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ST/H001158/1 | 30/09/2009 | 30/03/2011 | £1,403,342 | ||
| ST/H001158/2 | Transfer | ST/H001158/1 | 30/09/2010 | 29/09/2012 | £7,884,875 |