RHUL Particle Physics Rolling Grant

Experimental particle physics addresses some of the fundamental questions about the structure and behaviour of the Universe at the level of the smallest particles of matter, the quarks and the leptons, and the forces acting between them. In this project we are contributing to the preparation of the ATLAS project at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN that will begin taking data in 2009. We have constructed and commissioned electronic systems and the software that drives them. From 2009 onwards we will be analysing the data as it becomes available. In particular we will be searching the data for evidence of the existence of the Higgs boson, one of the key missing elements of the Standard Model of particle physics at present, and for supersymmetric particles and other exotic phenomena, that are expected to exist. We are also planning to understand better the properties of the top quark and the structure of the proton.