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
(2018)
Observation of Centrality-Dependent Acoplanarity for Muon Pairs Produced via Two-Photon Scattering in Pb+Pb Collisions at sqrt[s_{NN}]=5.02 TeV with the ATLAS Detector.
in Physical review letters
Aaboud M
(2018)
Combination of the Searches for Pair-Produced Vectorlike Partners of the Third-Generation Quarks at sqrt[s]=13 TeV with the ATLAS Detector.
in Physical review letters
Aaboud M
(2017)
Determination of the strong coupling constant $$\alpha _\mathrm {s}$$ a s from transverse energy-energy correlations in multijet events at $$\sqrt{s} = 8~\hbox {TeV}$$ s = 8 TeV using the ATLAS detector
in The European Physical Journal C
Aaboud M
(2017)
Fiducial, total and differential cross-section measurements of t-channel single top-quark production in pp collisions at 8 TeV using data collected by the ATLAS detector.
in The European physical journal. C, Particles and fields
Aaboud M
(2018)
Observation of H ? b b ¯ decays and VH production with the ATLAS detector
in Physics Letters B
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
Aaboud M
(2018)
Search for doubly charged Higgs boson production in multi-lepton final states with the ATLAS detector using proton-proton collisions at s = 13 TeV.
in The European physical journal. C, Particles and fields
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
(2017)
Search for dark matter in association with a Higgs boson decaying to two photons at s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector
in Physical Review D
Aaboud M
(2018)
A search for pair-produced resonances in four-jet final states at s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector.
in The European physical journal. C, Particles and fields
Aaboud M
(2017)
Identification and rejection of pile-up jets at high pseudorapidity with the ATLAS detector
in The European Physical Journal C
Aaboud M
(2017)
Measurements of electroweak [Formula: see text] production and constraints on anomalous gauge couplings with the ATLAS detector.
in The European physical journal. C, Particles and fields
Aaboud M
(2017)
Measurement of the cross section for inclusive isolated-photon production in pp collisions at s = 13 TeV using the ATLAS detector
in Physics Letters B
Aaboud M
(2018)
Measurement of the production cross section of three isolated photons in pp collisions at s = 8 TeV using the ATLAS detector
in Physics Letters B
Aaboud M
(2018)
Measurement of jet fragmentation in 5.02 TeV proton-lead and proton-proton collisions with the ATLAS detector
in Nuclear Physics A
Aaboud M
(2017)
Study of the material of the ATLAS inner detector for Run 2 of the LHC
in Journal of Instrumentation
Aaboud M
(2018)
Erratum to: Measurement of the W-boson mass in pp collisions at $$\sqrt{s}=7\,\hbox {TeV}$$ s = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector
in The European Physical Journal C
Aaboud M
(2017)
Measurement of the k t splitting scales in Z ? ll events in pp collisions at s = 8 $$ \sqrt{s}=8 $$ TeV with the ATLAS detector
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Aaboud M
(2017)
Measurements of the production cross section of a [Formula: see text] boson in association with jets in pp collisions at [Formula: see text] TeV with the ATLAS detector.
in The European physical journal. C, Particles and fields
Aaboud M
(2017)
Analysis of the Wtb vertex from the measurement of triple-differential angular decay rates of single top quarks produced in the t-channel at s = 8 $$ \sqrt{s}=8 $$ TeV with the ATLAS detector
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Aaboud M
(2017)
Measurement of the inclusive jet cross-sections in proton-proton collisions at s = 8 $$ \sqrt{s}=8 $$ TeV with the ATLAS detector
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Aaboud M
(2018)
Measurement of the W-boson mass in pp collisions at s = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector.
in The European physical journal. C, Particles and fields
Aaboud M
(2017)
Search for direct top squark pair production in events with a Higgs or Z boson, 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)
Measurement of the azimuthal anisotropy of charged particles produced in s NN = 5.02 TeV Pb+Pb collisions with the ATLAS detector.
in The European physical journal. C, Particles and fields
Aaboud M
(2017)
Measurement of jet fragmentation in Pb+Pb and pp collisions at $$\sqrt{ {s_\mathrm{NN}}} = 2.76$$ s NN = 2.76 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC
in The European Physical Journal C
Aaboud M
(2018)
Search for diboson resonances with boson-tagged jets in pp collisions at s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector
in Physics Letters B
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 heavy ZZ resonances in the l + l - l + l - and l + l - ? ? ¯ final states using proton-proton collisions at s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector.
in The European physical journal. C, Particles and fields
Aaboud M
(2017)
Femtoscopy with identified charged pions in proton-lead collisions at s NN = 5.02 TeV with ATLAS
in Physical Review C
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
(2018)
Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector.
in The European physical journal. C, Particles and fields
Aaboud M
(2017)
Measurement of multi-particle azimuthal correlations in pp, p + Pb and low-multiplicity Pb + Pb collisions with the ATLAS detector
in The European Physical Journal C
Aaboud M
(2017)
Study of ordered hadron chains with the ATLAS detector
in Physical Review D
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
(2019)
Search for heavy charged long-lived particles in proton-proton collisions at s = 13 TeV using an ionisation measurement with the ATLAS detector
in Physics Letters B
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 Higgs boson pair production in the ? ? W W * channel using pp collision data recorded at s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector.
in The European physical journal. C, Particles and fields
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
Aaboud M
(2017)
Search for Dark Matter Produced in Association with a Higgs Boson Decaying to bb[over ¯] Using 36 fb^{-1} of pp Collisions at sqrt[s]=13 TeV with the ATLAS Detector.
in Physical review letters
Aaboud M
(2018)
Measurement of the cross section for isolated-photon plus jet production in pp collisions at s = 13 TeV using the ATLAS detector
in Physics Letters B
Aaboud M
(2018)
Comparison between simulated and observed LHC beam backgrounds in the ATLAS experiment at E beam =4 TeV
in Journal of Instrumentation
Aaboud M
(2018)
Search for the Decay of the Higgs Boson to Charm Quarks with the ATLAS Experiment.
in Physical review letters