Lancaster Experimental Particle Physics Consolidated Grant 2015-2019
Lead Research Organisation:
Lancaster University
Department Name: Physics
Abstract
This research is aimed at understanding the properties of the basic building blocks of the Universe (the elementary particles) and the nature of the fundamental forces which govern the interactions of these particles. In so doing, deep insights will be gained about the origin and evolution of the Universe, especially in the first moments after the Big Bang.
The Lancaster research programme covers all the main types of accelerator facilities and is based on hadron collider physics with the LHC (CERN) machine, and the observation of long baseline neutrino oscillations in Japan and elsewhere. All of this work will be underpinned by Lancaster's expertise in characterising and understanding the properties of heavily irradiated silicon particle detectors, in operating high performance computing facilities on the Grid and in writing offline event reconstruction software.
The hadron collider physics is expected to reveal detailed properties of B hadrons (containing heavy b-quarks) including the mixing of neutral B mesons containing strange quarks, and CP violation which is related to the existence of the matter- antimatter asymmetry in the Universe. Searches for new physics at the LHC will focus on understanding role and nature of the Higgs boson, the existence of new symmetries of nature (e.g. supersymmetry) and extra spatial dimensions.
The neutrino oscillations programme is expected to provide important information about the masses of and the amount of mixing amongst the three known species of neutrinos. If the appearance of electron neutrinos can be well measured in a muon neutrino beam then it may be possible, in a further phase of the research, to establish the existence of CP violation in the neutrino sector of the Standard Model. This could have wide reaching implications for the understanding of the matter- antimatter asymmetry of the Universe.
The development of new particle accelerator technology for high energy particle physics and a broad range of alternaive applications is the mission of the Cockcroft Institute. The Lancaster group were co-founders of the Institute and remain commited to supporting its evolution. Equally, we work to develop particle detectors (silicon strip, pixel, LAr TPC) and technologies (CMOS) to benefit the field, but also with potential spin-out benefit to science and society.
The Lancaster research programme covers all the main types of accelerator facilities and is based on hadron collider physics with the LHC (CERN) machine, and the observation of long baseline neutrino oscillations in Japan and elsewhere. All of this work will be underpinned by Lancaster's expertise in characterising and understanding the properties of heavily irradiated silicon particle detectors, in operating high performance computing facilities on the Grid and in writing offline event reconstruction software.
The hadron collider physics is expected to reveal detailed properties of B hadrons (containing heavy b-quarks) including the mixing of neutral B mesons containing strange quarks, and CP violation which is related to the existence of the matter- antimatter asymmetry in the Universe. Searches for new physics at the LHC will focus on understanding role and nature of the Higgs boson, the existence of new symmetries of nature (e.g. supersymmetry) and extra spatial dimensions.
The neutrino oscillations programme is expected to provide important information about the masses of and the amount of mixing amongst the three known species of neutrinos. If the appearance of electron neutrinos can be well measured in a muon neutrino beam then it may be possible, in a further phase of the research, to establish the existence of CP violation in the neutrino sector of the Standard Model. This could have wide reaching implications for the understanding of the matter- antimatter asymmetry of the Universe.
The development of new particle accelerator technology for high energy particle physics and a broad range of alternaive applications is the mission of the Cockcroft Institute. The Lancaster group were co-founders of the Institute and remain commited to supporting its evolution. Equally, we work to develop particle detectors (silicon strip, pixel, LAr TPC) and technologies (CMOS) to benefit the field, but also with potential spin-out benefit to science and society.
Planned Impact
1. UK and overseas industry from the contracts that they could receive for construction of the ATLAS tracker upgrade, detectors for a future neutrino experiment and components (eg superconducting RF cavities) for particle accelerator
projects. These projects have been stimulated by our current research at the LHC and with T2K in Japan.
2. UK and overseas industry from knowledge exchange resulting from our own basic research with heavily irradiated silicon particle detectors, for which we have a long and impressive track record. Manufacturers of solid state detectors designed to operate in high radiation environments will benefit from the knowledge and ideas that we are able to transmit, enabling them to optimise the design and performance of their own products.
We will ensure that industry is made aware of our research, and thereby benefit from it, through a broad programme of dissemination involving direct contacts with potential industrial partners and with indirect contacts, namely with refereed publications in high impact factor journals, conference & workshop talks and proceedings, university seminars, articles & interviews in the popular media (television, radio, newspapers & scientific magazines), web-casts and Twitter feeds. We believe that these standard forms of dissemination to the academic community also have the potential to reach industrial partners and are a significant supplement to direct contacts.
3. The UK general public, including schools, through outreach activities and the cultural impact of particle physics research.
We will ensure that these communities are made aware of our research, and thereby benefit from it, through a broad programme of dissemination involving articles & interviews in the popular media (television, radio, newspapers & scientific magazines), public lectures, web-casts and Twitter feeds. There is abundant evidence that a large fraction of the general public finds the conceptual ideas of particle physics and its associated technologies both fascinating and stimulating. The most obvious example of this is the extraordinary level of public interest in the LHC, resulting in the term 'Hadron Collider' becoming a phrase that the majority of the population recognize and know something about. Quite regular satirical reference to the machine is powerful evidence that this science has deeply penetrated into the popular culture. The profound questions about the origin of the Universe which particle physics addresses strike a very clear chord with the public, many of who want to understand more about the Universe's origins and hence their own origins. There is an almost insatiable thirst for knowledge about this subject in the general public. At Lancaster we have been involved with the LHC for twenty years and it always has been, and always will be, a great privilege and a pleasure to be able to share our progress and discoveries with members of the public.
In the case of schools, in addition to all of the above, we run a very successful and long established programme of outreach activities, involving particle physics masterclasses, A-level particle physics enrichment days, talks at schools, organised and hosted trips to CERN, and teacher training events. The students benefit from these activities by acquiring deeper understanding of physics, enabling them to perform better in examinations, and by becoming more enthused about the subject in general. The Department employs a part-time physics teacher, funded by the Ogden Trust, to organise most of our schools outreach activities and thanks to his efforts, our outreach programme has proven to be very popular and effective, with growing evidence that more students are being encouraged to apply to do a physics degree either at Lancaster or elsewhere. Many of them cite their interest in particle physics as being one of the key drivers behind their choice of degree. We expect this pattern to continue into the future.
projects. These projects have been stimulated by our current research at the LHC and with T2K in Japan.
2. UK and overseas industry from knowledge exchange resulting from our own basic research with heavily irradiated silicon particle detectors, for which we have a long and impressive track record. Manufacturers of solid state detectors designed to operate in high radiation environments will benefit from the knowledge and ideas that we are able to transmit, enabling them to optimise the design and performance of their own products.
We will ensure that industry is made aware of our research, and thereby benefit from it, through a broad programme of dissemination involving direct contacts with potential industrial partners and with indirect contacts, namely with refereed publications in high impact factor journals, conference & workshop talks and proceedings, university seminars, articles & interviews in the popular media (television, radio, newspapers & scientific magazines), web-casts and Twitter feeds. We believe that these standard forms of dissemination to the academic community also have the potential to reach industrial partners and are a significant supplement to direct contacts.
3. The UK general public, including schools, through outreach activities and the cultural impact of particle physics research.
We will ensure that these communities are made aware of our research, and thereby benefit from it, through a broad programme of dissemination involving articles & interviews in the popular media (television, radio, newspapers & scientific magazines), public lectures, web-casts and Twitter feeds. There is abundant evidence that a large fraction of the general public finds the conceptual ideas of particle physics and its associated technologies both fascinating and stimulating. The most obvious example of this is the extraordinary level of public interest in the LHC, resulting in the term 'Hadron Collider' becoming a phrase that the majority of the population recognize and know something about. Quite regular satirical reference to the machine is powerful evidence that this science has deeply penetrated into the popular culture. The profound questions about the origin of the Universe which particle physics addresses strike a very clear chord with the public, many of who want to understand more about the Universe's origins and hence their own origins. There is an almost insatiable thirst for knowledge about this subject in the general public. At Lancaster we have been involved with the LHC for twenty years and it always has been, and always will be, a great privilege and a pleasure to be able to share our progress and discoveries with members of the public.
In the case of schools, in addition to all of the above, we run a very successful and long established programme of outreach activities, involving particle physics masterclasses, A-level particle physics enrichment days, talks at schools, organised and hosted trips to CERN, and teacher training events. The students benefit from these activities by acquiring deeper understanding of physics, enabling them to perform better in examinations, and by becoming more enthused about the subject in general. The Department employs a part-time physics teacher, funded by the Ogden Trust, to organise most of our schools outreach activities and thanks to his efforts, our outreach programme has proven to be very popular and effective, with growing evidence that more students are being encouraged to apply to do a physics degree either at Lancaster or elsewhere. Many of them cite their interest in particle physics as being one of the key drivers behind their choice of degree. We expect this pattern to continue into the future.
Publications
Aaboud M
(2018)
Measurement of the exclusive ???µ+µ- process in proton-proton collisions at s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector
in Physics Letters B
Adamson P
(2016)
Measurement of the multiple-muon charge ratio in the MINOS Far Detector
in Physical Review D
Abe K
(2020)
Measurement of the muon neutrino charged-current single p + production on hydrocarbon using the T2K off-axis near detector ND280
in Physical Review D
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
Acciarri R
(2017)
Michel electron reconstruction using cosmic-ray data from the MicroBooNE LArTPC
in Journal of Instrumentation
Adams C
(2020)
Reconstruction and measurement of (100) MeV energy electromagnetic activity from p 0 arrow ?? decays in the MicroBooNE LArTPC
in Journal of Instrumentation
Aaboud M
(2018)
Search for additional heavy neutral Higgs and gauge bosons in the ditau final state produced in 36 fb-1 of pp collisions at s = 13 $$ \sqrt{s}=13 $$ TeV with the ATLAS detector
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Aaboud M
(2018)
Search for B - L R -parity-violating top squarks in s = 13 TeV p p collisions with the ATLAS experiment
in Physical Review D
Description | The grant allowed us to establish that the new particle found at the LHC in 2012 had a key required property to he the Higgs boson - it decays to tau leptons and at about the right rate. We also made key measurements of the mixing between different types of neutrino, which allows the possibility of CP violation (a key effect that cold help explain the evolution of the early Universe). We also constrained the level of CP violation in the mixing and decay of particles containing beauty quarks, an effect that definitely happens. |
Exploitation Route | We will continue the measurements with higher precision. We will also be using the techniques developed to look for long-lived new particles, which could be a signature of new physics effects. |
Sectors | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software) Electronics Culture Heritage Museums and Collections Pharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnology |
Description | Public and cultural engagement; applications of thin film technologies, |
Sector | Pharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnology |
Impact Types | Cultural |
Description | Newton RCUK-CONACYT Cost-efficient and radiation-tolerant pixel detectors for ionising radiation based on thin-film technology |
Amount | £339,403 (GBP) |
Funding ID | ST/P003052/1 |
Organisation | Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 07/2016 |
End | 04/2019 |
Description | STFC Spark Public Engagement Awards |
Amount | £6,400 (GBP) |
Funding ID | ST/R001596/1 |
Organisation | Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 07/2017 |
End | 08/2018 |
Description | ATLAS |
Organisation | European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) |
Department | CERN LHC ATLAS |
Country | Switzerland |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | Tracking R&D and construction, software, distributed computing systems, detector operations, trigger performance and design, Standard Model, B-physics, Onium, Higgs, Top and SUSY studies; ran UK software and computing |
Collaborator Contribution | Detector operations, computing operations, software, shared physics tools |
Impact | currently O(200) papers in press (Feb 2013) |
Description | GridPP |
Organisation | European Grid Infrastructure (EGI) |
Country | Netherlands |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
PI Contribution | Middleware, hardware, operations; ATLAS Member of the PMB, formerly Applications Co-ordinator, Deputy Chair of Users Board. Provide Deployment Team member. |
Collaborator Contribution | Middleware, operations, co-ordination |
Impact | some papers, enabled many physics papers. |
Description | GridPP |
Organisation | Queen Mary University of London |
Department | GRIDPP3 |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Middleware, hardware, operations; ATLAS Member of the PMB, formerly Applications Co-ordinator, Deputy Chair of Users Board. Provide Deployment Team member. |
Collaborator Contribution | Middleware, operations, co-ordination |
Impact | some papers, enabled many physics papers. |
Description | T2K |
Organisation | T2K Collaboration |
Country | Global |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Collaborators, detector builders (ND280), operators |
Collaborator Contribution | Collaborators |
Impact | Papers, detector R&D |
Description | WLCG |
Organisation | European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) |
Department | Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG) |
Country | Switzerland |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Hardware, middleware, operations; Collaboration Board Member and Chair |
Collaborator Contribution | Hardware, middleware, operations, co-ordination |
Impact | All LHC and Tevatron papers |
Description | Big Bang Science Fair at Waterfire 2018 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | We helped co-ordinate and plan this event using our experience form WOMAD |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | https://waterfire.org/big-bang-science-fair-at-waterfire-providence-on-september-22-2018/ |
Description | Lancaster particle physics masterclasses |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | Three days of masterclasses held at Lancaster with Y12/Y13 pupils. The event influences both pupils and teachers. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
URL | http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/physics/outreach/masterclasses/ |
Description | Royal Society Summer Exhibition 20918 |
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 | T2k and Hyper-K exhibit at the exhibition (multi-institute activity) |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | https://royalsociety.org/science-events-and-lectures/2019/summer-science-exhibition/exhibits/ |
Description | WOMAD 2016 Physics Pavilion |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Curated the first phsycis pavilion at the WOMAD festival 2016 in Wiltshire. Totoal attendence over 40,000, through the tent 4000 |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
Description | WOMAD 2017 |
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 | The Phsyis Pavilion was a talk space running over 3 days. The Lab is a workshop/activity space, also running over 3 days. The Gazebo is a small exhibition/interaction area for those queuing and passers-by. The total reach was estimated at 5.400 minimum. The footprint was larger - we feature prominently in the advertising for the event, which is seen worldwide. The activity is being cloned and adapted in Australia, New Zealand, Denmark and Slovakia. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
URL | http://womad.co.uk/physics-pavilion/ |
Description | WOMAD 2018 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Physics Pavilion, Lab and Gazeebo at WOMAD in Malmsebury, Wiltshire. Attendance 30-40k. Good coverage including BBC News Online particle |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/physics/outreach/womad/ |
Description | WOMAD 2019 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | World of Physics - 3.5 days of presentations; 3 days of workshops; 3 days of walk-by interactive activities; 3 days of planetarium; 3 nights of lightshow with physics theme |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
URL | https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/physics/outreach/big-bang-collective/ |
Description | WOMAD 2020 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Online replacement for the World of Physics in 2020. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
URL | https://athome.womad.co.uk/world-of-physics-at-home/ |
Description | beamline for schools |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | We are institutional partners for the Beamline for Schools project, and support the RA executing the project at CERN. Thsi allows schools to propose and execute projects using CERN beamlines. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016,2017,2018 |
URL | https://voisins.cern/en/offre/bl4s |