Bristol Particle Physics Consolidated Grant 2015-19
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Bristol
Department Name: Physics
Abstract
The Bristol particle physics group will search for evidence of physics beyond the Standard Model, and work to understand the properties of new phenomena. We will carry out this study using a range of approaches and experiments.
At the CERN CMS experiment at the LHC, we will search for signatures of the production of dark matter and supersymmetric particles, using events with 'missing energy'. In the absence of a discovery, we will combine statistical information from our observations with results from cosmology and direct dark matter searches, to rule out potential theories of new physics. We will also use the very large datasets produced at the LHC to study the production and properties of the top quark, a standard model particle with unique properties.
We will use a complementary approach to search for new physics at the CERN LHCb experiment, looking for subtle signatures of new physics that manifest themselves in the decays of mesons containing heavy quarks. We will use similar approaches to test current ideas about the nature of fundamental quantum symmetries.
A number of new experiments are being prepared, and will be ready for use within or shortly after the grant period. The NA62 experiment at the CERN SPS will study the decays of kaons to look for signs of new physics. The SOLID experiment at the BR2 reactor will study neutrino oscillations on an ultra-short baseline of 5-10m. The SHiP experiment at the CERN SPS will use a very high intensity beam to search for 'dark particles' that are signatures of physics beyond the Standard Model. Finally, we have begun to make preparations for the detailed design and optimisation of detectors for a future linear collider.
We will continue our programme of particle detector R&D, contributing to the upgrade of CMS and LHCb, to the design and construction of new experiments, and to the development of new sensors and technologies. An important part of this programme will be collaboration with industry and other academic disciplines, in order to generate impact from our work.
At the CERN CMS experiment at the LHC, we will search for signatures of the production of dark matter and supersymmetric particles, using events with 'missing energy'. In the absence of a discovery, we will combine statistical information from our observations with results from cosmology and direct dark matter searches, to rule out potential theories of new physics. We will also use the very large datasets produced at the LHC to study the production and properties of the top quark, a standard model particle with unique properties.
We will use a complementary approach to search for new physics at the CERN LHCb experiment, looking for subtle signatures of new physics that manifest themselves in the decays of mesons containing heavy quarks. We will use similar approaches to test current ideas about the nature of fundamental quantum symmetries.
A number of new experiments are being prepared, and will be ready for use within or shortly after the grant period. The NA62 experiment at the CERN SPS will study the decays of kaons to look for signs of new physics. The SOLID experiment at the BR2 reactor will study neutrino oscillations on an ultra-short baseline of 5-10m. The SHiP experiment at the CERN SPS will use a very high intensity beam to search for 'dark particles' that are signatures of physics beyond the Standard Model. Finally, we have begun to make preparations for the detailed design and optimisation of detectors for a future linear collider.
We will continue our programme of particle detector R&D, contributing to the upgrade of CMS and LHCb, to the design and construction of new experiments, and to the development of new sensors and technologies. An important part of this programme will be collaboration with industry and other academic disciplines, in order to generate impact from our work.
Planned Impact
- There will be a societal impact amongst the general public as we publicise the results of our research through outreach.
- We will engage with school age students and teachers to convey the excitement of fundamental research, motivating more students to study STEM subjects at post-16 and HE levels.
- Engagement with UK industry through contracts and joint projects, and through the provision of well-trained physicists as employees, will result in economic impact
- Other academic disciplines will benefit from our skills, knowledge and capabilities, addressing a number of important problems across a range of fields
Full details are given in our Case for Support and Pathways to Impact document
- We will engage with school age students and teachers to convey the excitement of fundamental research, motivating more students to study STEM subjects at post-16 and HE levels.
- Engagement with UK industry through contracts and joint projects, and through the provision of well-trained physicists as employees, will result in economic impact
- Other academic disciplines will benefit from our skills, knowledge and capabilities, addressing a number of important problems across a range of fields
Full details are given in our Case for Support and Pathways to Impact document
Publications
Harnew S
(2015)
Model independent determination of the CKM phase ? using input from D 0 - D ¯ 0 $$ {D}^0\hbox{-} {\overline{D}}^0 $$ mixing
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Pesántez L
(2015)
Measurement of the Direct CP Asymmetry in B¯?X(s+d?) Decays with a Lepton Tag.
in Physical review letters
Collaboration T
(2015)
B flavour tagging using charm decays at the LHCb experiment
in Journal of Instrumentation
Khachatryan V
(2015)
Search for resonances and quantum black holes using dijet mass spectra in proton-proton collisions at s = 8 TeV
in Physical Review D
Chatrchyan S
(2015)
Erratum to: Measurement of jet multiplicity distributions in $$\mathrm {t}\overline{\mathrm {t}}$$ t t ¯ production in pp collisions at $$\sqrt{s} = 7\,\text {TeV} $$ s = 7 TeV
in The European Physical Journal C
Chatrchyan S
(2015)
Study of Z production in PbPb and pp collisions at s N N = 2.76 $$ \sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=2.76 $$ TeV in the dimuon and dielectron decay channels
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Teles P
(2015)
Diffraction & Forward Physics in CMS: results and perspectives
in EPJ Web of Conferences
Khachatryan V
(2015)
Precise determination of the mass of the Higgs boson and tests of compatibility of its couplings with the standard model predictions using proton collisions at 7 and 8[Formula: see text].
in The European physical journal. C, Particles and fields
Aaij R
(2015)
Search for the lepton flavour violating decay t - ? µ - µ + µ -
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Veelken C
(2015)
Identification of hadronic tau decays in CMS
in Nuclear and Particle Physics Proceedings
Salur S
(2015)
A Brief Review of CMS Jet Measurements
in Journal of Physics: Conference Series
Lange D
(2015)
Upgrades for the CMS simulation
in Journal of Physics: Conference Series
Ilten P
(2015)
Z and W Physics with Tau-Leptons at the LHC
in Nuclear and Particle Physics Proceedings
Khachatryan V
(2015)
Search for heavy Majorana neutrinos in µ ± µ ± + jets events in proton-proton collisions at s = 8 TeV
in Physics Letters B
Elayavalli R
(2015)
Jet Measurements in Heavy-ion Collisions with CMS
in Journal of Physics: Conference Series
Hits D
(2015)
The CMS Pixel Readout Chip for the Phase 1 Upgrade
in Journal of Instrumentation
Khachatryan V
(2015)
Constraints on the pMSSM, AMSB model and on other models from the search for long-lived charged particles in proton-proton collisions at [Formula: see text].
in The European physical journal. C, Particles and fields
Aaij R
(2015)
Observation of J/?p Resonances Consistent with Pentaquark States in ?_{b}^{0}?J/?K^{-}p Decays.
in Physical review letters
Benedetti D
(2015)
Spacetime condensation in (2+1)-dimensional CDT from a Horava-Lifshitz minisuperspace model
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Khachatryan V
(2015)
Search for supersymmetry with photons in p p collisions at s = 8 TeV
in Physical Review D
Aaij R
(2015)
Measurement of CP violation parameters and polarisation fractions in B s 0 ? J / ? K ¯ * 0 $$ {\mathrm{B}}_{\mathrm{s}}^0\to \mathrm{J}/\psi {\overline{\mathrm{K}}}^{\ast 0} $$ decays
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Conneely T
(2015)
The TORCH PMT: a close packing, multi-anode, long life MCP-PMT for Cherenkov applications
in Journal of Instrumentation
Khachatryan V
(2015)
Search for neutral MSSM Higgs bosons decaying into a pair of bottom quarks
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Khachatryan V
(2015)
Differential cross section measurements for the production of a W boson in association with jets in proton-proton collisions at s = 7 TeV
in Physics Letters B
Khachatryan V
(2015)
Production of leading charged particles and leading charged-particle jets at small transverse momenta in p p collisions at s = 8 TeV
in Physical Review D
Description | Resources from this award funded our knowledge exchange programme, developing new detectors that are finding uses in medicine (radiotherapy), security and industrial applications. Findings have been discussed in outreach events, inspiring new generations and generating public interest. |
First Year Of Impact | 2015 |
Sector | Aerospace, Defence and Marine,Education,Energy,Healthcare,Security and Diplomacy |
Impact Types | Societal,Economic |
Description | DUNE UK Production Project |
Amount | £689,382 (GBP) |
Funding ID | ST/S00355X/1 |
Organisation | Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 10/2019 |
End | 09/2024 |
Description | Graphcore's IPUs |
Organisation | Graphcore |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | Evaluating Graphcore's novel IPU processors, and, for the first time, implementing Particle Physics relevant software on them. Of particular interest not only to us, but also the community interested in these novel processors, is that we did not only use IPUs for machine learning (although we did that, too), but also non ML applications (Kalman Filter). Our work was also beneficial to our industrial partner in optimising and debugging their API. |
Collaborator Contribution | Cloud Access to IPUs and technical support. |
Impact | Paper: https://inspirehep.net/literature/1812756 (accepted for publication) |
Start Year | 2019 |
Description | Antimatter Matters |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | LHCb-UK and Alpha-UK organised a joint stand at the Royal Society summer exhibition 2016. The Bristol Particle Physics group participated in the organisation (printing T-shirts, stickers) and the presentation of the exhibits during the event. Antimatter Matters has its own website and has been presented at several other events throughout the UK. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
URL | http://www.antimatter-matters.org/ |
Description | Bristol Bright Night 2014 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Various STFC and ERC funded members of the university of Bristol gave public talks to audiences of various sizes (ranging from "pitch talks" of 5 min, to particle physicists contributing to a planetarium demonstration), we had a stall with particle physics-related activities and engaged with members of the public. Feedback was excellent. Positive audience feedback. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
URL | http://www.bristol.ac.uk/public-engagement/events/2014/bristol-bright-night.html |
Description | Colloquium |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | Public colloquium at the school of physics. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | Cosmic 100 project at Bristol Balloon Fiesta |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Lots of discussions with the public at the LHC exhibit. Media coverage of balloon flight with particle detector. Don't know how to answer this. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
URL | http://www.bris.ac.uk/news/2012/8694.html |
Description | Pint of Science |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | A talk and discussion on the theme of antimatter to a general audience in a pub (including a demonstration with a spark chamber through which muons and anti-muons passed), part of the "Pint of Science" series of events. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
URL | https://pintofscience.co.uk/about/ |
Description | Women in STEMM |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | Event engaging year 8/9 students in science activities, with an emphasis on female role models. The Bristol particle physics group had a stand with hands-on activities, spark chamber, and a video presentation introducing famous female particle physicists. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
URL | https://www.bristol.ac.uk/biochemistry/public/events/2017/event---women-in-stemm.html |