UCL Experimental Particle Physics Consolidated Grant (2022-2025)
Lead Research Organisation:
University College London
Department Name: Physics and Astronomy
Abstract
Experimental particle physics studies extremely small sizes, or equivalently high energies. We seek to understand the nature of the physical universe in terms of fundamental forces and particles to answer the simple question: how did our universe evolve? Experiments capable of reaching these extremes are technically demanding, requiring precision detectors which can operate in hostile environments, particle accelerators which can collide beams at very high energies, super-sensitive detectors capable of identifying very rare decays, high-speed electronics to read a million pieces of information per second & software to analyse petabytes of data using the latest data-mining techniques.
This is a "consolidated grant", underpinning the base of highly skilled research & technical staff which allows UCL to lead projects at the very highest levels. It provides the support that allows the group to effectively train PhD students & young post-doc researchers. The science this will support includes:
- Understand the properties and exact nature of the Higgs boson, search for new physics at the LHC, and upgrade the ATLAS experiment.
- Measure with exquisite precision the magnetic dipole moment of the muon, the heavier version of the electron, confronting a long-standing anomaly which may indicate new fundamental physics.
- Understand why we live in a universe dominated by matter rather than anti-matter, in contrast to the conditions immediately after the Big Bang. Neutrino oscillations, which may show a difference between the behaviour of neutrinos and anti-neutrinos, are studied with the NOvA experiment, and soon with the massive DUNE experiment that we are helping to construct. UCL will analyse data from SuperNEMO and the new LEGEND experiment, which will search for the incredibly rare process whereby matter is spontaneously created inside the nucleus when it undergoes double-beta decay, yielding insights into how the cosmological matter-antimatter asymmetry may have arisen.
- Seek evidence for dark matter (DM), that makes up the majority of matter in the universe, with the LZ experiment that is sensitive to the fleeting signatures that DM particles in our galaxy leave if they bounce off atoms in the detector.
- Search for phenomena at extremely high energies, well beyond the reach of man-made accelerators. The PUEO experiment searches for ultra-high energy neutrino interactions in Antarctica.
- Look for evidence of exceedingly rare processes whereby a muon converts into 1 or 3 electrons; observing this process would be a clear sign of new physics.
- Develop new accelerator and detector technologies for future experiments. We are looking at paradigm-shifting accelerator technologies that may allow us to achieve higher energies in compact devices through the AWAKE project. We perform underpinning R&D that will allow us to build the next-generation of 10x larger underground detectors for DM and other rare event searches.
- Seek to test the long-established theory of QED in new, extreme environments similar to those found in astrophysical objects through the LUXE experiment.
- Deploy novel quantum technologies to dramatically improve the the prospect of measuring the neutrino mass, and consider how particle physics computations can be carried out vastly quicker on quantum computers.
- Share our results with other scientists and industry. Our accelerator and radiation measurement expertise can be applied to various sectors, and we cooperate with instrument manufacturers to develop better products for our own research and for other users. Of particular importance is our work to develop the use of proton beams for cancer treatment, building on our close relationship with UCL-Hospitals.
Some of this work is funded by other grants but is all underpinned by the technical expertise being supported by this grant, which is vital to secure the scientific progress and wider benefits that we seek.
This is a "consolidated grant", underpinning the base of highly skilled research & technical staff which allows UCL to lead projects at the very highest levels. It provides the support that allows the group to effectively train PhD students & young post-doc researchers. The science this will support includes:
- Understand the properties and exact nature of the Higgs boson, search for new physics at the LHC, and upgrade the ATLAS experiment.
- Measure with exquisite precision the magnetic dipole moment of the muon, the heavier version of the electron, confronting a long-standing anomaly which may indicate new fundamental physics.
- Understand why we live in a universe dominated by matter rather than anti-matter, in contrast to the conditions immediately after the Big Bang. Neutrino oscillations, which may show a difference between the behaviour of neutrinos and anti-neutrinos, are studied with the NOvA experiment, and soon with the massive DUNE experiment that we are helping to construct. UCL will analyse data from SuperNEMO and the new LEGEND experiment, which will search for the incredibly rare process whereby matter is spontaneously created inside the nucleus when it undergoes double-beta decay, yielding insights into how the cosmological matter-antimatter asymmetry may have arisen.
- Seek evidence for dark matter (DM), that makes up the majority of matter in the universe, with the LZ experiment that is sensitive to the fleeting signatures that DM particles in our galaxy leave if they bounce off atoms in the detector.
- Search for phenomena at extremely high energies, well beyond the reach of man-made accelerators. The PUEO experiment searches for ultra-high energy neutrino interactions in Antarctica.
- Look for evidence of exceedingly rare processes whereby a muon converts into 1 or 3 electrons; observing this process would be a clear sign of new physics.
- Develop new accelerator and detector technologies for future experiments. We are looking at paradigm-shifting accelerator technologies that may allow us to achieve higher energies in compact devices through the AWAKE project. We perform underpinning R&D that will allow us to build the next-generation of 10x larger underground detectors for DM and other rare event searches.
- Seek to test the long-established theory of QED in new, extreme environments similar to those found in astrophysical objects through the LUXE experiment.
- Deploy novel quantum technologies to dramatically improve the the prospect of measuring the neutrino mass, and consider how particle physics computations can be carried out vastly quicker on quantum computers.
- Share our results with other scientists and industry. Our accelerator and radiation measurement expertise can be applied to various sectors, and we cooperate with instrument manufacturers to develop better products for our own research and for other users. Of particular importance is our work to develop the use of proton beams for cancer treatment, building on our close relationship with UCL-Hospitals.
Some of this work is funded by other grants but is all underpinned by the technical expertise being supported by this grant, which is vital to secure the scientific progress and wider benefits that we seek.
Organisations
Publications
Bothmann E
(2023)
A standard convention for particle-level Monte Carlo event-variation weights
in SciPost Physics Core
GERDA Collaboration
(2024)
An improved limit on the neutrinoless double-electron capture of 36Ar with GERDA.
in The European physical journal. C, Particles and fields
Aad G
(2022)
AtlFast3: The Next Generation of Fast Simulation in ATLAS
in Computing and Software for Big Science
Ananyev V
(2023)
Collider constraints on electroweakinos in the presence of a light gravitino
in The European Physical Journal C
Aad G
(2022)
Constraints on Higgs boson production with large transverse momentum using H ? b b ¯ decays in the ATLAS detector
in Physical Review D
Aad G
(2022)
Constraints on Higgs boson properties using $$WW^{*}(\rightarrow e\nu \mu \nu )jj$$ production in $$36.1\,\mathrm{fb}^{-1}$$ of $$\sqrt{s}=13$$ TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector
in The European Physical Journal C
Verra L
(2022)
Controlled Growth of the Self-Modulation of a Relativistic Proton Bunch in Plasma.
in Physical review letters
White A
(2023)
Design, construction and commissioning of a technological prototype of a highly granular SiPM-on-tile scintillator-steel hadronic calorimeter
in Journal of Instrumentation
Aad G
(2022)
Determination of the parton distribution functions of the proton using diverse ATLAS data from pp collisions at $$\sqrt{s} = 7$$, 8 and 13 TeV
in The European Physical Journal C
Aad G
(2022)
Direct constraint on the Higgs-charm coupling from a search for Higgs boson decays into charm quarks with the ATLAS detector
in The European Physical Journal C
Ettengruber M
(2022)
Discovering neutrinoless double-beta decay in the era of precision neutrino cosmology
in Physical Review D
Bothmann E
(2024)
Efficient precision simulation of processes with many-jet final states at the LHC
in Physical Review D
Aad G
(2022)
Emulating the impact of additional proton-proton interactions in the ATLAS simulation by presampling sets of inelastic Monte Carlo events
in Computing and Software for Big Science
Agostini M
(2023)
Final Results of GERDA on the Two-Neutrino Double- ß Decay Half-Life of Ge 76
in Physical Review Letters
Athanassiadis A
(2023)
High-rate electron detectors to study Compton scattering in non-perturbative QED
Abt I
(2022)
Impact of jet-production data on the next-to-next-to-leading-order determination of HERAPDF2.0 parton distributions
in The European Physical Journal C
Acero M
(2022)
Improved measurement of neutrino oscillation parameters by the NOvA experiment
in Physical Review D
Agostini M
(2023)
Liquid argon light collection and veto modeling in GERDA Phase II.
in The European physical journal. C, Particles and fields
Bash S
(2022)
Low-latency NuMI trigger for the Chips-5 neutrino detector
in Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment
Abt I
(2023)
Measurement of jet production in deep inelastic scattering and NNLO determination of the strong coupling at ZEUS
in The European Physical Journal C
Aad G
(2022)
Measurement of the c-jet mistagging efficiency in $$t\bar{t}$$ events using pp collision data at $$\sqrt{s}=13$$ $$\text {TeV}$$ collected with the ATLAS detector
in The European Physical Journal C
Aad G
(2022)
Measurement of the energy asymmetry in $$t{\bar{t}}j$$ production at $$13\,$$TeV with the ATLAS experiment and interpretation in the SMEFT framework
in The European Physical Journal C
Aad G
(2022)
Measurement of the energy response of the ATLAS calorimeter to charged pions from $$W^{\pm }\rightarrow \tau ^{\pm }(\rightarrow \pi ^{\pm }\nu _{\tau })\nu _{\tau }$$ events in Run 2 data
in The European Physical Journal C
Description | ATLAS PROJECT COORDINATION |
Amount | £0 (GBP) |
Funding ID | ATLAS |
Organisation | Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 01/2010 |
End | 01/2030 |
Description | ATLAS Upgrades PROJECT COORDINATION |
Amount | £0 (GBP) |
Funding ID | ATLAS Upgrades |
Organisation | Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 01/2010 |
End | 01/2030 |
Description | Mu2e : A proposal to extend the sensitivity to charged lepton flavour violation by 4 orders of magnitude. |
Amount | £212,579 (GBP) |
Funding ID | ST/P002757/1 |
Organisation | Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 04/2017 |
End | 09/2021 |
Description | Mu3e experiment: a search for lepton flavour violation in the decay of a muon to three electrons |
Amount | £26,000 (GBP) |
Funding ID | ST/P002765/1 |
Organisation | Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 04/2017 |
End | 03/2020 |
Description | ProtoDUNE Project Coordination |
Amount | £0 (GBP) |
Funding ID | ProtoDUNE |
Organisation | Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 01/2017 |
End | 01/2030 |
Description | SuperNEMO PROJECT COORDINATION |
Amount | £0 (GBP) |
Funding ID | SuperNEMO |
Organisation | Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 01/2010 |
End | 01/2030 |
Description | The LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) Dark Matter Search |
Amount | £377,011 (GBP) |
Funding ID | ST/M003981/1 |
Organisation | Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 04/2015 |
End | 09/2019 |
Description | XENON FUTURES: R&D for a Global Rare Event Observatory - Phase 1 |
Amount | £117,773 (GBP) |
Funding ID | ST/T007109/1 |
Organisation | Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 10/2019 |
End | 10/2023 |
Description | XENON FUTURES: R&D for a Global Rare Event Observatory - Phase 2 |
Amount | £61,887 (GBP) |
Funding ID | ST/V001825/1 |
Organisation | Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 04/2021 |
End | 06/2024 |
Description | g-2 Project Coordination |
Amount | £254,345 (GBP) |
Funding ID | g-2 |
Organisation | Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 01/2010 |
End | 01/2030 |