Support for Particle Physics at Brunel University
Lead Research Organisation:
Brunel University London
Department Name: Electronic and Computer Engineering
Abstract
This grant supports particle physics data analysis from the Compact Muon Solenoid general purpose detector at the Large Hadron Collider CERN and the maintainance and operation of the Electromagneitc Calorimeter and the Silicon Tracker. It also provides support for work aimed at developing new techniques for the construction of megatonne detectors for neutrinos. Exploiting the recently commissioned Compact Muon Solenoid detector at the LHC will bring greatly enhanced understanding of the "Standard Model" of particle physics, particularly in the area of top-quark physics, searching for as yet undiscovered gauge bosons and supersymmetric particles, and ultimately shedding light on the mysterious "Higgs" boson which is connected with the origins of mass. Other STFC funded experimental work on to producing a narrow beam of muons is an essential precursor to building intense beams of these particles which will be used, by their decay in flight, to provide intense beams of neutrinos to be detected in large (million tonne) detectors. New techniques for building such detectors are also funded in part by this grant. Studying in detail the properties of neutrinos will illuminate the matter/anti-matter asymmetry of our universe.
Planned Impact
Many groups and individuals will exploit and apply our work to provide the pathway to final impact.
Industrial and Commercial Users will be engaged through various conferences (e.g. IEEE NSS/MIC, Position Sensitive Detectors series), where they form a significant part of the audience, as well as through our industrial Advisory Panels. These groups will be able to use exploit the information and understanding generated by the research to exploit and apply it to their products and services.
Teachers will be able to ensure leading edge research is used in their work. Brunel hosts the 'Goldsmith's Company Science for Society Course in Particle Physics' for around 25 physics teachers each year and will use the course to communicate and engage with teachers so that our research understanding can inform their teaching activities. A number of members of the group have STEM Ambassador status, and actively participate in STEMNET outreach activities, providing the team with the capacity to involve local School Children.
Other Professional Users will be able to employ the results of our research in their organisations through team members' capacity and involvement with various Institute of Physics committees and groups, to provide other avenues for communicating scientific research through newsletters and IOP outreach events.
The Public will be able to engage with our research through Brunel's regular outreach activities to the general public, such as the events held at Brunel University during National Science and Engineering Week, the Brunel Public Lecture series, the Brunel Electronic and Analogue Music (BEAM) Festival and
the Hillingdon Mathematics and Engineering Masterclasses.
General detector development work conducted by the group will also be made known to the wider Academic Community through the all outreach methods described above and through future collaborations with academic and industrial partners in the preparation of collaborative research proposals.
Economic Impacts will accrue in industrial and commercial sectors, particularly in fields where advanced computing and data analysis skills are valued. Our detector development and radiation effects work will benefit a number of commercial silicon and scintillation detector producers, through the ability to develop new products and services.
People Impacts will accrue through the skills and training received by our ixed term contract research staff and postgraduate students, many of whom go on to work in industry or become involved with STEM teaching, and will benefit the UK industrial and commercial sectors too, particularly in fields where advanced computing and data analysis skills are valued.
Social Impacts will result directly from the quality and continued professional development of secondary school teachers learning firsthand about our research through participation in the annual Goldsmith's course, and indirectly through the enthusiasm of their pupils studying STEM subjects that they teach.
Academic Impacts will result from the group's involvement in the exploitation, operation and upgrading the CMS experiment at the LHC, which will be of benefit to a large community of researchers and engineers, as we play a part in ensuring the continued success of the experiment.
Industrial and Commercial Users will be engaged through various conferences (e.g. IEEE NSS/MIC, Position Sensitive Detectors series), where they form a significant part of the audience, as well as through our industrial Advisory Panels. These groups will be able to use exploit the information and understanding generated by the research to exploit and apply it to their products and services.
Teachers will be able to ensure leading edge research is used in their work. Brunel hosts the 'Goldsmith's Company Science for Society Course in Particle Physics' for around 25 physics teachers each year and will use the course to communicate and engage with teachers so that our research understanding can inform their teaching activities. A number of members of the group have STEM Ambassador status, and actively participate in STEMNET outreach activities, providing the team with the capacity to involve local School Children.
Other Professional Users will be able to employ the results of our research in their organisations through team members' capacity and involvement with various Institute of Physics committees and groups, to provide other avenues for communicating scientific research through newsletters and IOP outreach events.
The Public will be able to engage with our research through Brunel's regular outreach activities to the general public, such as the events held at Brunel University during National Science and Engineering Week, the Brunel Public Lecture series, the Brunel Electronic and Analogue Music (BEAM) Festival and
the Hillingdon Mathematics and Engineering Masterclasses.
General detector development work conducted by the group will also be made known to the wider Academic Community through the all outreach methods described above and through future collaborations with academic and industrial partners in the preparation of collaborative research proposals.
Economic Impacts will accrue in industrial and commercial sectors, particularly in fields where advanced computing and data analysis skills are valued. Our detector development and radiation effects work will benefit a number of commercial silicon and scintillation detector producers, through the ability to develop new products and services.
People Impacts will accrue through the skills and training received by our ixed term contract research staff and postgraduate students, many of whom go on to work in industry or become involved with STEM teaching, and will benefit the UK industrial and commercial sectors too, particularly in fields where advanced computing and data analysis skills are valued.
Social Impacts will result directly from the quality and continued professional development of secondary school teachers learning firsthand about our research through participation in the annual Goldsmith's course, and indirectly through the enthusiasm of their pupils studying STEM subjects that they teach.
Academic Impacts will result from the group's involvement in the exploitation, operation and upgrading the CMS experiment at the LHC, which will be of benefit to a large community of researchers and engineers, as we play a part in ensuring the continued success of the experiment.
Publications

Aad G
(2015)
Combined Measurement of the Higgs Boson Mass in pp Collisions at sqrt[s]=7 and 8 TeV with the ATLAS and CMS Experiments.
in Physical review letters

Adam W
(2020)
Experimental study of different silicon sensor options for the upgrade of the CMS Outer Tracker
in Journal of Instrumentation

Adam W
(2016)
Trapping in proton irradiated p + -n-n + silicon sensors at fluences anticipated at the HL-LHC outer tracker
in Journal of Instrumentation

Akawi N
(2015)
Discovery of four recessive developmental disorders using probabilistic genotype and phenotype matching among 4,125 families.
in Nature genetics

Chatrchyan S
(2014)
Observation of the Associated Production of a Single Top Quark and a W Boson in p p Collisions at s = 8 TeV
in Physical Review Letters

Chatrchyan S
(2013)
Measurement of the W+W- cross section in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 7\mbox{ TeV}$ and limits on anomalous WW? and WWZ couplings
in The European Physical Journal C

Chatrchyan S
(2013)
Search for long-lived particles in events with photons and missing energy in proton-proton collisions at s = 7 TeV
in Physics Letters B

Chatrchyan S
(2013)
Observation of long-range, near-side angular correlations in pPb collisions at the LHC
in Physics Letters B

Chatrchyan S
(2013)
Search for a Higgs boson decaying into a Z and a photon in pp collisions at s = 7 and 8 TeV
in Physics Letters B

Chatrchyan S
(2014)
Observation of a peaking structure in the J / ? ? mass spectrum from B ± ? J / ? ? K ± decays
in Physics Letters B
Description | Measuring the properties of fundamental particles and their interactions enabling tests of the current "Standard Model" of particle physics and tests of new models that extend the "Standard Model" Discovery of the Higgs boson. |
Exploitation Route | Will be used by the world-wide community of particle physics theorists and phenomenologists. |
Sectors | Education Other |
Description | Particle Physics Consolidated Grant 2019 - 2022 |
Amount | £34,636 (GBP) |
Funding ID | ST/S00078X/1 |
Organisation | Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 09/2019 |
End | 09/2022 |
Description | Technology Programme |
Amount | £637,523 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/L504671/1 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 08/2013 |
End | 08/2016 |
Description | CMS |
Organisation | European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) |
Department | Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) |
Country | Switzerland |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | Construction, comissioning and operation of the CMS experiment. Data analysis in top-quark physics studies. Provision (via GridPP London Tier-2) of computing resources. |
Collaborator Contribution | Data acquistion, computing resources (Tier 0), co-authorship of publications, access to data, scientific leadership and support |
Impact | Over 200 refereed journal publications in experimental particle physics. Along with LHC data analysed by the ATLAS collaboration CMS determined the existence of the Higgs boson which was the subject of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics. Several STFC funded doctoral students have been trained in data analysis, computer programming and large-scale distributed Grid computing techniques. |
Description | CMS |
Organisation | Imperial College London |
Department | Department of Physics |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Construction, comissioning and operation of the CMS experiment. Data analysis in top-quark physics studies. Provision (via GridPP London Tier-2) of computing resources. |
Collaborator Contribution | Data acquistion, computing resources (Tier 0), co-authorship of publications, access to data, scientific leadership and support |
Impact | Over 200 refereed journal publications in experimental particle physics. Along with LHC data analysed by the ATLAS collaboration CMS determined the existence of the Higgs boson which was the subject of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics. Several STFC funded doctoral students have been trained in data analysis, computer programming and large-scale distributed Grid computing techniques. |
Description | CMS |
Organisation | Rutherford Appleton Laboratory |
Department | Particle Physics Department |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | Construction, comissioning and operation of the CMS experiment. Data analysis in top-quark physics studies. Provision (via GridPP London Tier-2) of computing resources. |
Collaborator Contribution | Data acquistion, computing resources (Tier 0), co-authorship of publications, access to data, scientific leadership and support |
Impact | Over 200 refereed journal publications in experimental particle physics. Along with LHC data analysed by the ATLAS collaboration CMS determined the existence of the Higgs boson which was the subject of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics. Several STFC funded doctoral students have been trained in data analysis, computer programming and large-scale distributed Grid computing techniques. |
Description | CMS |
Organisation | University of Bristol |
Department | School of Physics |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Construction, comissioning and operation of the CMS experiment. Data analysis in top-quark physics studies. Provision (via GridPP London Tier-2) of computing resources. |
Collaborator Contribution | Data acquistion, computing resources (Tier 0), co-authorship of publications, access to data, scientific leadership and support |
Impact | Over 200 refereed journal publications in experimental particle physics. Along with LHC data analysed by the ATLAS collaboration CMS determined the existence of the Higgs boson which was the subject of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics. Several STFC funded doctoral students have been trained in data analysis, computer programming and large-scale distributed Grid computing techniques. |
Description | Big Bang Fair NEC 2014 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | This exhibit showed the ideas behind the Higgs boson, and guided visitors through the physics, engineering and computing developments that have led to its discovery. Activities included: mass generation using magnets; operation of a table-top accelerator; handling of components from LHC detectors; and dice games that simulate particle-physics experiments. From badges given away to individual visitors we estimate about 5000 people (pre-booked school groups and 7-18 year-old children with parents/carers) came to the stand. Not yet known, activity took place last week. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
URL | http://www.thebigbangfair.co.uk/View/?con_id=3108 |
Description | Goldsmith A-level Physics Teachers Course |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Type Of Presentation | Workshop Facilitator |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | Invited talks on particle physics plus one-day visit to CERN. 25 A-level (or equivalent) Physics Teachers attend a week-long residential course run at Brunel. Contacts established with Schools whom we subsequently have visited. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | Pre-2006,2006,2007,2008,2009,2010,2011,2012 |
Description | Royal Society Summer Exhibition 2013 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | The Exhibition is the Society's main public event of the year and is open to members of the general public as well as students and teachers, scientists, policymakers and the media. The "Higgs Boson" stand was one of the most visited during the exhibition. Over 2300 students and 260 teachers visited the exhibition, most of whom will have visited the Higgs Boson stand. Over 11000 visitors in total attended and we estimate well over half of these visited our stand (judged by number of items given away to visitors). A large number of visitors from the general public were enthused about the LHC, ATLAS & CMS experiments and the UK role in discovering the Higgs Boson. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
URL | http://sse.royalsociety.org/2013/exhibits/higgs-boson/ |
Description | Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition 2014 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Talks and presentations generated discussion and engagement with Nobel Prize winning physics. Generated a great deal of interest in the Higgs Boson, Dark Matter and Supersymmetry amongst a diverse audience. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
URL | http://sse.royalsociety.org/2014/higgs-boson/ |
Description | School visit (High Wycombe) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | Talk to 24 Y12 pupils at Wycombe Abbey School to help them make the most out of a scheduled visit to CERN early in 2016. As a result of this activity it was reported back to me (by one of the teachers who attended my presentation and accompanied the pupils on the school visit) that hey were able to benefit more from their visit to CERN. In addition interest was expressed in the possibility of two-week work experience placements at Brunel. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |