Consolidated Grant 2019
Lead Research Organisation:
Queen Mary University of London
Department Name: Physics
Abstract
The QMUL Particle Physics Research Centre (PPRC) is working on an exciting set of particle physics experiments at the forefront of the field spanning the entire mass-scale from the lowest to the highest mass particles.
At the high-mass scale, members of the centre have played an important role in the design, construction of the ATLAS detector at the CERN LHC. The group is actively working on analyses of the vast, rich set of data produced by the detector. The group contributed to the Higgs boson discovery and is engaged in research dedicated to deepening the understanding of the Higgs and searching for discrepancies in the Standard Model through a variety of intricate tests. The group is also exploring dark matter and exotic particle searches in ATLAS.
The vast quantity of data produced by the LHC experiments required a distributed, shared computing fabric that is easily accessible to researchers worldwide. The group is heavily involved in GridPP that is targetted to meet this requirement and operates one of the largest Grid sites in the UK.
The QMUL Group is also involved in upgrades to the ATLAS detector to meet the challenges of an increase in the luminosity of the beam. The group is focussed on the complex ATLAS Tracker Upgrade and Level One Calorimeter Trigger upgrade programmes. The generic R&D coming from the tracker upgrade is part of our groundwork for our impact activities.
At the other end of the mass scale, the neutrino group is involved in ground-breaking studies of the neutrino with significant involvement in three experiments: T2K, Hyper-K, SNO+ and IceCube/IceCube-Gen2. The group played an important role in the design, construction of the T2K long baseline neutrino experiment in Japan. The group has actively contributed to the groundbreaking observations of neutrino oscillations (hinting at non-zero CP violation) and is working on the important goal of detecting an indication of CP violation in T2K. This will provide an important element in unravelling the more matter than antimatter in the Universe mystery. The group plays an important role in the upgrade of T2K: Hyper-Kamiokande which will be a precision experiment with a wide physics program from measuring CP violation to searching got proton decays. The Group plays an important role in the design, construction and operation of the SNO+ experiment that offers a rich programme of neutrino physics with the SNO+ detector located in Canada. This exciting experiment has just started to take data and the group has a key role in the analysis and imminent publication of first results. The Group also plays an important role in an experiment dedicated to studying very high energy atmospheric neutrinos with IceCube/IceCube-Gen2 located in Antarctica.
Finally, the Group is maintaining a watching brief across the future collider options sector.
At the high-mass scale, members of the centre have played an important role in the design, construction of the ATLAS detector at the CERN LHC. The group is actively working on analyses of the vast, rich set of data produced by the detector. The group contributed to the Higgs boson discovery and is engaged in research dedicated to deepening the understanding of the Higgs and searching for discrepancies in the Standard Model through a variety of intricate tests. The group is also exploring dark matter and exotic particle searches in ATLAS.
The vast quantity of data produced by the LHC experiments required a distributed, shared computing fabric that is easily accessible to researchers worldwide. The group is heavily involved in GridPP that is targetted to meet this requirement and operates one of the largest Grid sites in the UK.
The QMUL Group is also involved in upgrades to the ATLAS detector to meet the challenges of an increase in the luminosity of the beam. The group is focussed on the complex ATLAS Tracker Upgrade and Level One Calorimeter Trigger upgrade programmes. The generic R&D coming from the tracker upgrade is part of our groundwork for our impact activities.
At the other end of the mass scale, the neutrino group is involved in ground-breaking studies of the neutrino with significant involvement in three experiments: T2K, Hyper-K, SNO+ and IceCube/IceCube-Gen2. The group played an important role in the design, construction of the T2K long baseline neutrino experiment in Japan. The group has actively contributed to the groundbreaking observations of neutrino oscillations (hinting at non-zero CP violation) and is working on the important goal of detecting an indication of CP violation in T2K. This will provide an important element in unravelling the more matter than antimatter in the Universe mystery. The group plays an important role in the upgrade of T2K: Hyper-Kamiokande which will be a precision experiment with a wide physics program from measuring CP violation to searching got proton decays. The Group plays an important role in the design, construction and operation of the SNO+ experiment that offers a rich programme of neutrino physics with the SNO+ detector located in Canada. This exciting experiment has just started to take data and the group has a key role in the analysis and imminent publication of first results. The Group also plays an important role in an experiment dedicated to studying very high energy atmospheric neutrinos with IceCube/IceCube-Gen2 located in Antarctica.
Finally, the Group is maintaining a watching brief across the future collider options sector.
Planned Impact
The QMUL Particle Physics group focuses its research primarily on experimental particle physics aimed at understanding the fundamental constituents of the universe and the forces through which they interact. This research centres on: the ATLAS experiment and its upgrade at the CERN Large Hadron Collider - searching for new high energy phenomena and an understanding of the Higgs boson; the T2K experiment in Japan and its upgrade Hyper-Kamiokande which studies neutrino interactions with the aim of understanding the matter-antimatter imbalance in the universe and SNO+ that studies the neutrino nature. The direct outcomes of this research advance our knowledge of the nature of the universe.
We have developed a set of impact cases on which we will work on during the length of the grant. They are: organic radiation detectors, compact neutron generator, non-planar silicon detectors, PMT development, general data acquisition, proteomics, machine learning implementations.
Finally, the Group is also very much involved in outreach activities.
We have developed a set of impact cases on which we will work on during the length of the grant. They are: organic radiation detectors, compact neutron generator, non-planar silicon detectors, PMT development, general data acquisition, proteomics, machine learning implementations.
Finally, the Group is also very much involved in outreach activities.
Organisations
- Queen Mary University of London (Lead Research Organisation)
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) (Collaboration)
- Dounreay Site Restoration Limited (Collaboration)
- GridPP Collaboration (Collaboration)
- Atomic Weapons Establishment (Collaboration)
- National Nuclear Laboratory (Collaboration)
- Fermilab - Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Collaboration)
- Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) (Collaboration)
- Micron Semiconductor (Collaboration)
- European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) (Collaboration)
Publications
Aad G
(2020)
Searches for lepton-flavour-violating decays of the Higgs boson in s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector
in Physics Letters B
Aad G
(2020)
Measurement of the Lund Jet Plane Using Charged Particles in 13 TeV Proton-Proton Collisions with the ATLAS Detector.
in Physical review letters
Aad G
(2019)
Measurement of the cross-section and charge asymmetry of W bosons produced in proton-proton collisions at $$\sqrt{s}=8~\text {TeV}$$ with the ATLAS detector
in The European Physical Journal C
Aad G
(2021)
Erratum to: Search for squarks and gluinos in final states with one isolated lepton, jets, and missing transverse momentum at $$\sqrt{s}=13$$ TeV with the ATLAS detector
in The European Physical Journal C
Aad G
(2021)
Measurement of the CP-violating phase $$\phi _s$$ in $$ B_{s}^{0} \rightarrow J/\psi \phi $$ decays in ATLAS at 13 TeV
in The European Physical Journal C
Aad G
(2019)
Measurement of flow harmonics correlations with mean transverse momentum in lead-lead and proton-lead collisions at $$\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}} = 5.02~\hbox {TeV}$$ with the ATLAS detector
in The European Physical Journal C
Aad G
(2022)
Performance of the ATLAS Level-1 topological trigger in Run 2
in The European Physical Journal C
Description | PhD applications of organic sensors for radiation detection |
Amount | £48,267 (GBP) |
Funding ID | P/O No 30469473 |
Organisation | Atomic Weapons Establishment |
Sector | Private |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 09/2019 |
End | 03/2023 |
Description | ANITA/PUEO |
Organisation | National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) |
Country | United States |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | Lead simulation team effort on this experiment, and contribute to data analysis |
Collaborator Contribution | Helped create a world leading balloon experiment that provides unique and valuable data for analysis |
Impact | see publications |
Start Year | 2020 |
Description | ATLAS Collaboration |
Organisation | European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) |
Country | Switzerland |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | The ATLAS Collaboration at CERN, including R&D toward upgrades of the CERN LHC Facility |
Collaborator Contribution | International laboratory hosting an experiment |
Impact | These include the discovery of the Higgs boson, many publications and preliminary results, machine learning technology integrated into teaching resources for undergraduate and graduate students. |
Description | AWE Ltd |
Organisation | Atomic Weapons Establishment |
Department | National Nuclear Security Programme |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | Working on the development of a novel neutron detector. |
Collaborator Contribution | Partners have funded the development of device readout and simulation. This underpins technology refinements that have accelerated technology development. |
Impact | Outputs are being finalised in terms of publications and IP protection. |
Start Year | 2015 |
Description | DUNE Collaboration |
Organisation | Fermilab - Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory |
Department | DUNE |
Country | United States |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | We have recently joined this experimental collaboration and are making contributions to the design of the near detector gas TPC data acquisition system. |
Collaborator Contribution | We are collaborating closely with Imperial College and Royal Holloway as part of the UK consortium for this experiment. Our work fits into the broader international picutre where our international partners have contributed to the design of a world leading mega science project, with a neutrino production source via the Fermi Lab National Accelerator Laboratory accelerator system, and a two-stage detector system; a near detector at that laboratory's site and a far detector at the SURF facility in South Dakota, USA. |
Impact | It is too early to have generated outcomes from this work so far. |
Start Year | 2019 |
Description | Dounreay |
Organisation | Dounreay Site Restoration Limited |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | Characterisation team at Dounreay |
Collaborator Contribution | identified and facilitating access to a nuclear power station for decommissioning purposes |
Impact | NDA Studentship has just been awarded, which will be a 143k contribution to the organisation |
Start Year | 2022 |
Description | GridPP |
Organisation | GridPP Collaboration |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Learned Society |
PI Contribution | Operation of a Grid cluster with significant resources to support the LHC computing requirements |
Collaborator Contribution | Provided computing resource that underpins many of the analysis results listed under the publications for this award. |
Impact | See publications |
Description | Micron Semiconductor Ltd (CVD Diamond) |
Organisation | Micron Semiconductor |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | Our team has developed technology for our organic neutron detector work with the AWE Ltd. that has the potential for us to merge Micron's CVD diamond to make a new type of neutron detector. We have partnered with MSL to explore ways to realise this new type of neutron detector. |
Collaborator Contribution | Our collaboration partner has so far provided an in kind contribution through provision of commercial (market) and technical information on products and applications. This has led to us being able to seek funding, where MSL has pledged a 100k in-kind contribution, AWE a 45k in kind contribution to go toward a product development programme. The outcome of that application will be known in June 2020. |
Impact | It is too early to report outputs from this new collaboration. We will record outputs under our next consolidated grant. |
Start Year | 2019 |
Description | MoEDAL |
Organisation | European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) |
Country | Switzerland |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | We lead the machine learning effort on this international experiment and have contributed to searching for new particles. Participation in this collaboration provides us access to valuable and unique data. |
Collaborator Contribution | Collaboration partners have contributed indirectly via providing a group of world leading scientists to network with, and work closely with on instrument development and algorithm development. |
Impact | none |
Start Year | 2016 |
Description | NOvA |
Organisation | Fermilab - Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory |
Country | United States |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | Data analysis and detector operations |
Collaborator Contribution | Data analysis, management of analysis working groups |
Impact | See publication list |
Start Year | 2020 |
Description | National Nuclear Laboratory |
Organisation | National Nuclear Laboratory |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | My team and NNL have had 5 or 6 very productive in depth discussions about the usage of our technology for decommissioning activities. The company has learned about the capabilities our novel technology brings and is discussing those with some of its customer sites. |
Collaborator Contribution | We have developed a deeper understanding of the needs of industry and submitted applications for future CASE and NDA funded studentships. We have submitted a funding proposal with NLL as a partner, and for that submission we have a pledged in-kind contribution from the company. |
Impact | This collaboration covers physics and chemistry, and includes sub-fields of particle physics and condensed matter. |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | T2K |
Organisation | Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) |
Country | Japan |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | Contributions to the evidence for CP violation in the neutrino sector |
Collaborator Contribution | Supporting experimental operations and data analysis |
Impact | See publications list |
Start Year | 2006 |
Title | Organic Semiconductor Neutron Detector |
Description | Development of a pi-conjugated semiconductor polymer based radiation detector with additives that would work as a neutron detector including for thermal neutrons. |
IP Reference | 1905234.9 UK patent |
Protection | Patent / Patent application |
Year Protection Granted | 2019 |
Licensed | No |
Impact | UK, EU, and US patents filled on technological developments surrounding organic semiconductor neutron detectors. |