Application to the PPGP Experiment Responsive PDRA Call by the University of Warwick

The scope of the proposed research lies in three distinct areas: Higgs and new phenomena searches at the ATLAS Experiment; the physics of particles containing the beauty quark at LHCb; the physics of neutrinos with neutrino oscillation both from beams and from astrophysical sources. In more detail:

o The ATLAS experiment at CERN, a large, general purpose detector operating at the LHC was designed to search for and study the Higgs boson, as well as new exotic forms of matter. Our work involves contributing to the experiment's ability to reconstruct and identify interesting events. We then build on this work to perform detailed studies of the Higgs boson, in interactions not currently covered by the community, that will provide important new results to help fully explore the Standard Model and its limitations.

o We aim to further our research into extremely rare decays of Beauty mesons at the LHCb experiment. These measurements provide a complimentary test for new physics to that given by the high energy search approach of e.g. ATLAS at the LHC. This is very specialised work and the Warwick LHCb Group are acknowledged world leaders in the field. This proposal will open up studies of new decay channels which have to-date not been possible through the use of new techniques and higher data statistics.

o The Warwick neutrino group is heavily committed to contributing to the pursuit of understanding neutrino properties and how these particles might be hold the key to understanding many of the outstanding big questions in fundamental physics e.g. missing mass in the Universe and the matter-antimatter crisis. We approach this on many fronts including studying neutrino oscillations with man-made neutrino beams, studying solar, atmospheric and astrophysical sources of neutrinos and in ultra-low background experiments where rare double beta processes can be studied. This proposal concerns work towards our goal of measuring for the first time the Diffuse SuperNova Background(DSNB) which is expected to permeate our universe due to core collapse supernovae throughout the history of the universe. It's discovery would be an exciting milestone with important consequences including a stringent test of the formation rate of black holes.

o We will continue to develop our outreach programme which includes activities for local schools and articles in popular science publications. All of our researchers are strongly encouraged to publicise their work as widely as possible and to contribute to EPP Group outreach activities.

o Supported by a strong University strategy and ethos in knowledge exchange, we will continue to pursue all avenues for possible knowledge exchange.