STFC Consolidated Grant Supplement

This grant supports particle physics data analysis from the Compact Muon Solenoid general purpose detector at the Large Hadron Collider CERN and the maintenance 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/antimatter asymmetry of our universe.

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.