Experimental Particle Physics at the University of Edinburgh
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Edinburgh
Department Name: Sch of Physics and Astronomy
Abstract
The Edinburgh Experimental Particle Physics group is currently working in three different running experiments and we are also working on several future projects.
The ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC): ATLAS is one of two detectors able to study a wide variety of particles created from the collision of protons at the highest energies ever created, and it addresses fundamental questions. The most well known is that of the origin of mass. The beautiful symmetry which underlies our understanding of particle interactions inherently demands that all particles are massless. This cannot be the case, and the elegant solution put forward is now known as the Higgs mechanism. The discovery of the Higgs boson has verified this, and now we must measure its properties in great detail. Another area addressed by ATLAS is the search for new heavy particles such as new heavy Higgs like particles or supersymmetric particles, which are predicted in models trying to address shortcomings of the Standard Model (SM), such as why there is dark matter.
The LHCb experiment at the LHC. Prior to the 1960s, it had been thought that matter and anti-matter would behave in the same way. However, it was discovered that this symmetry was violated, and that matter does not behave in an identical way to anti-matter. This is embodied in the phenomenon of CP violation and is essential to the understanding of the early universe. Shortly after the big bang there were equal amounts of matter and anti-matter. During expansion and cooling, matter and anti-matter would have annihilated into photons to leave a universe full of radiation, but no stars and galaxies. It was shown in 1967 by Sakarov that if three conditions, including CP violation, were met, then it would be possible for a small imbalance of matter over anti-matter to accrue, which would be sufficient to explain the existence of the universe. LHCb measures differences (CP violation) in behaviour of particles and antiparticle with at least one b or anti-b quark and searches for very rare decays of these particles, which could be affected by heavy unobserved particles.
The LUX-ZEPLIN experiment, which is the world's most sensitive apparatus searching for dark matter. It is well known that some 27% of the Universe is comprised of Dark Matter - that is matter of some form which does not interact in a way that produces radiation, or other easy to observe signatures. There are many theoretical candidates and resolution of this mystery must include the direct detection of our own galactic dark matter. We lead the collaboration's efforts to detect particularly well-motivated possibilities including axions and dark phonons.
We have grown our neutrino physics activities in the recent years. One of the most interesting facts of nature is that there are only three species of neutrinos, which until recently were thought to be massless. It is important to measure precisely the "mixing" between the species and to search for CP violation in neutrinos. We have also joined the MicroBooNE and SBND experiments, which will search for new, sterile, neutrinos which interact only via gravity but not with any of the fundamental interactions of the SM.
The ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC): ATLAS is one of two detectors able to study a wide variety of particles created from the collision of protons at the highest energies ever created, and it addresses fundamental questions. The most well known is that of the origin of mass. The beautiful symmetry which underlies our understanding of particle interactions inherently demands that all particles are massless. This cannot be the case, and the elegant solution put forward is now known as the Higgs mechanism. The discovery of the Higgs boson has verified this, and now we must measure its properties in great detail. Another area addressed by ATLAS is the search for new heavy particles such as new heavy Higgs like particles or supersymmetric particles, which are predicted in models trying to address shortcomings of the Standard Model (SM), such as why there is dark matter.
The LHCb experiment at the LHC. Prior to the 1960s, it had been thought that matter and anti-matter would behave in the same way. However, it was discovered that this symmetry was violated, and that matter does not behave in an identical way to anti-matter. This is embodied in the phenomenon of CP violation and is essential to the understanding of the early universe. Shortly after the big bang there were equal amounts of matter and anti-matter. During expansion and cooling, matter and anti-matter would have annihilated into photons to leave a universe full of radiation, but no stars and galaxies. It was shown in 1967 by Sakarov that if three conditions, including CP violation, were met, then it would be possible for a small imbalance of matter over anti-matter to accrue, which would be sufficient to explain the existence of the universe. LHCb measures differences (CP violation) in behaviour of particles and antiparticle with at least one b or anti-b quark and searches for very rare decays of these particles, which could be affected by heavy unobserved particles.
The LUX-ZEPLIN experiment, which is the world's most sensitive apparatus searching for dark matter. It is well known that some 27% of the Universe is comprised of Dark Matter - that is matter of some form which does not interact in a way that produces radiation, or other easy to observe signatures. There are many theoretical candidates and resolution of this mystery must include the direct detection of our own galactic dark matter. We lead the collaboration's efforts to detect particularly well-motivated possibilities including axions and dark phonons.
We have grown our neutrino physics activities in the recent years. One of the most interesting facts of nature is that there are only three species of neutrinos, which until recently were thought to be massless. It is important to measure precisely the "mixing" between the species and to search for CP violation in neutrinos. We have also joined the MicroBooNE and SBND experiments, which will search for new, sterile, neutrinos which interact only via gravity but not with any of the fundamental interactions of the SM.
Organisations
Publications
Aaij R
(2023)
$${ {J}/\psi }$$ and $${ {D}} ^0$$ production in $$\sqrt{s_{\scriptscriptstyle \text {NN}}} =68.5\,\text {GeV} $$ PbNe collisions
in The European Physical Journal C
Aaij R
(2023)
A study of $$C\!P$$ violation in the decays $${ {B} ^\pm } \rightarrow [{ {K} ^+} { {K} ^-} { {\uppi } ^+} { {\uppi } ^-} ]_{D} h^{\pm }$$ ($$h = K, \pi $$) and $${ {B} ^\pm } \rightarrow [{ {\uppi } ^+} { {\uppi } ^-} { {\uppi } ^+} { {\uppi } ^-} ]_{D} h^{\pm }$$
in The European Physical Journal C
Aaij R
(2023)
Amplitude analysis of B 0 ? D ¯ 0 D s + p - and B + ? D - D s + p + decays
in Physical Review D
Aaij R
(2023)
Amplitude analysis of the ? c + ? p K - p + decay and ? c + baryon polarization measurement in semileptonic beauty hadron decays
in Physical Review D
Aad G
(2023)
ATLAS flavour-tagging algorithms for the LHC Run 2 pp collision dataset
in The European Physical Journal C
Aaij R
(2023)
Charmonium production in pNe collisions at $$\sqrt{s_{\scriptscriptstyle \text {NN}}} =68.5$$ GeV
in The European Physical Journal C
Aad G
(2023)
Comparison of inclusive and photon-tagged jet suppression in 5.02 TeV Pb+Pb collisions with ATLAS
in Physics Letters B
Aad G
(2023)
Constraints on spin-0 dark matter mediators and invisible Higgs decays using ATLAS 13 TeV pp collision data with two top quarks and missing transverse momentum in the final state
in The European Physical Journal C
Aaij R
(2023)
Direct C P violation in charmless three-body decays of B ± mesons
in Physical Review D
Aaij R
(2023)
Evidence of a J/?K_{S}^{0} Structure in B^{0}?J/??K_{S}^{0} Decays.
in Physical review letters
Aad G
(2023)
Evidence of off-shell Higgs boson production from ZZ leptonic decay channels and constraints on its total width with the ATLAS detector
in Physics Letters B
Aad G
(2023)
Fast b-tagging at the high-level trigger of the ATLAS experiment in LHC Run 3
in Journal of Instrumentation
Aaij R
(2023)
First observation of the B + ? D s + D s - K + decay
in Physical Review D
Aad G
(2023)
Luminosity determination in pp collisions at $$\sqrt{s}=13$$ TeV using the ATLAS detector at the LHC
in The European Physical Journal C
Aaij R
(2023)
Measurement of $$\tau _\text {L}$$ using the $${B} _s^0 \rightarrow J/\psi \eta $$ decay mode
in The European Physical Journal C
Aad G
(2023)
Measurement of $$Z\gamma \gamma $$ production in pp collisions at $$\sqrt{s}= 13$$ TeV with the ATLAS detector
in The European Physical Journal C
Aaij R
(2023)
Measurement of antiproton production from antihyperon decays in $${p} \textrm{He}$$ collisions at $$\sqrt{s_{\scriptscriptstyle \mathrm NN}} =110$$ $$\,\text {Ge\hspace{-1.00006pt}V}$$
in The European Physical Journal C
Aaij R
(2024)
Measurement of CP Violation in B^{0}??(?l^{+}l^{-})K_{S}^{0}(?p^{+}p^{-}) Decays.
in Physical review letters
Aad G
(2023)
Measurement of exclusive pion pair production in proton-proton collisions at $$\sqrt{s}={7}\,\text {TeV}$$ with the ATLAS detector
in The European Physical Journal C
Aaij R
(2023)
Measurement of lepton universality parameters in B + ? K + l + l - and B 0 ? K * 0 l + l - decays
in Physical Review D
Aad G
(2023)
Measurement of substructure-dependent jet suppression in Pb + Pb collisions at 5.02 TeV with the ATLAS detector
in Physical Review C
Aad G
(2023)
Measurement of Suppression of Large-Radius Jets and Its Dependence on Substructure in Pb + Pb Collisions at s N N = 5.02 TeV with the ATLAS Detector
in Physical Review Letters
Aaij R
(2023)
Measurement of the ? b 0 ? ? ( 1520 ) µ + µ - Differential Branching Fraction
in Physical Review Letters
Aaij R
(2023)
Measurement of the Branching Fractions B ( B 0 ? p p ¯ p p ¯ ) and B ( B s 0 ? p p ¯ p p ¯ )
in Physical Review Letters
Aad G
(2023)
Measurement of the charge asymmetry in top-quark pair production in association with a photon with the ATLAS experiment
in Physics Letters B
Aad G
(2023)
Measurement of the CP properties of Higgs boson interactions with $$\tau $$-leptons with the ATLAS detector
in The European Physical Journal C
Aad G
(2023)
Measurement of the Higgs boson mass with H ? ?? decays in 140 fb-1 of s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector
in Physics Letters B
Aaij R
(2023)
Measurement of the mass difference and relative production rate of the O b - and ? b - baryons
in Physical Review D
Aad G
(2023)
Measurement of the nuclear modification factor of b-jets in 5.02 TeV Pb+Pb collisions with the ATLAS detector
in The European Physical Journal C
Aad G
(2023)
Measurement of the polarisation of W bosons produced in top-quark decays using dilepton events at s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS experiment
in Physics Letters B
Aad G
(2023)
Measurement of the production of a W boson in association with a charmed hadron in p p collisions at s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector
in Physical Review D
Aaij R
(2023)
Measurement of the Prompt D 0 Nuclear Modification Factor in p - Pb Collisions at s N N = 8.16 TeV
in Physical Review Letters
Aad G
(2023)
Measurement of the Sensitivity of Two-Particle Correlations in pp Collisions to the Presence of Hard Scatterings.
in Physical review letters
Aaij R
(2023)
Measurement of the Time-Integrated CP Asymmetry in D^{0}?K^{-}K^{+} Decays.
in Physical review letters
Aad G
(2023)
Measurement of the total cross section and $$\rho $$-parameter from elastic scattering in pp collisions at $$\sqrt{s}=13$$ TeV with the ATLAS detector
in The European Physical Journal C
Aad G
(2023)
Measurements of $$W^{+}W^{-}$$ production in decay topologies inspired by searches for electroweak supersymmetry
in The European Physical Journal C
Aad G
(2023)
Measurements of observables sensitive to colour reconnection in $$t{\bar{t}}$$ events with the ATLAS detector at $$\sqrt{s} =$$ 13 TeV
in The European Physical Journal C