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
Aad G
(2024)
Search for non-resonant production of semi-visible jets using Run 2 data in ATLAS
in Physics Letters B
Aad G
(2024)
Search for the Z? decay mode of new high-mass resonances in pp collisions at s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector
in Physics Letters B
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
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)
Search for doubly charged Higgs boson production in multi-lepton final states using 139 fb$$^{-1}$$ of proton-proton collisions at $$\sqrt{s}$$ = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector
in The European Physical Journal C
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 exclusive pion pair production in proton-proton collisions at $$\sqrt{s}={7}\,\text {TeV}$$ with the ATLAS detector
in The European Physical Journal C
Aad G
(2023)
Search for Higgs boson pair production in association with a vector boson in pp collisions at $$\sqrt{s}=13\,\text {TeV}$$ with the ATLAS detector
in The European Physical Journal C
Aad G
(2023)
Observation of gauge boson joint-polarisation states in W±Z production from pp collisions at s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector
in Physics Letters B
Aad G
(2023)
Observation of Single-Top-Quark Production in Association with a Photon Using the ATLAS Detector
in Physical Review Letters
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
Aad G
(2023)
Search for flavour-changing neutral-current couplings between the top quark and the photon with the ATLAS detector at s = 13 TeV
in Physics Letters B
Aad G
(2023)
ATLAS flavour-tagging algorithms for the LHC Run 2 pp collision dataset
in The European Physical Journal C
Aad G
(2023)
Tools for estimating fake/non-prompt lepton backgrounds with the ATLAS detector at the LHC
in Journal of Instrumentation
Aad G
(2023)
Searches for exclusive Higgs and Z boson decays into a vector quarkonium state and a photon using 139 fb$$^{-1}$$ of ATLAS $$\sqrt{s}=13$$ TeV proton-proton collision data
in The European Physical Journal C
Aad G
(2024)
Observation of W Z ? Production in p p Collisions at s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS Detector
in Physical Review Letters
Aad G
(2023)
Search for heavy long-lived multi-charged particles in the full LHC Run 2 pp collision data at s = 13 TeV using the ATLAS detector
in Physics Letters B
Aad G
(2023)
Search for exclusive Higgs and Z boson decays to ?? and Higgs boson decays to K?? 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
Aad G
(2023)
Search for Heavy Neutral Leptons in Decays of W Bosons Using a Dilepton Displaced Vertex in sqrt[s]=13 TeV pp Collisions with the ATLAS Detector.
in Physical review letters
Aaij R
(2023)
Study of charmonium decays to K S 0 K p in the B ? ( K S 0 K p ) K channels
in Physical Review D
Aaij R
(2023)
Nuclear Modification Factor of Neutral Pions in the Forward and Backward Regions in p-Pb Collisions.
in Physical review letters
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
Aaij R
(2023)
Model-independent measurement of charm mixing parameters in B ¯ ? D 0 ( ? K S 0 p + p - ) µ - ? ¯ µ X decays
in Physical Review D
Aaij R
(2023)
Search for Rare Decays of D 0 Mesons into Two Muons
in Physical Review Letters
Aaij R
(2023)
Open charm production and asymmetry in pNe collisions at $$\sqrt{s_{\scriptscriptstyle {\textrm{NN}}}} = 68.5$$ $$\,\text {Ge\hspace{-1.00006pt}V}$$
in The European Physical Journal C
Aaij R
(2023)
Search for $$D^{*}(2007)^{0} \rightarrow \mu ^{+} \mu ^{-}$$ in $$B^{-}\rightarrow \pi ^{-} \mu ^{+} \mu ^{-}$$ decays
in The European Physical Journal C
Aaij R
(2023)
Search for direct C P violation in charged charmless B ? P V decays
in Physical Review D
Aaij R
(2023)
Test of lepton flavor universality using B 0 ? D * - t + ? t decays with hadronic t channels
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
Aaij R
(2023)
Charmonium production in pNe collisions at $$\sqrt{s_{\scriptscriptstyle \text {NN}}} =68.5$$ GeV
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
Aaij R
(2023)
Observation of sizeable ? contribution to ? c 1 ( 3872 ) ? p + p - J / ? decays
in Physical Review D
Aaij R
(2023)
Search for K S ( L ) 0 ? µ + µ - µ + µ - decays at LHCb
in Physical Review D
Aaij R
(2023)
Precision Measurement of C P Violation in the Penguin-Mediated Decay B s 0 ? ? ?
in Physical Review Letters
Aaij R
(2023)
Observation of a Resonant Structure near the D_{s}^{+}D_{s}^{-} Threshold in the B^{+}?D_{s}^{+}D_{s}^{-}K^{+} Decay.
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
Aaij R
(2023)
Search for the baryon- and lepton-number violating decays B 0 ? p µ - and B s 0 ? p µ -
in Physical Review D
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
Aaij R
(2023)
Measurement of the ? b 0 ? ? ( 1520 ) µ + µ - Differential Branching Fraction
in Physical Review Letters
Aaij R
(2023)
First observation of the B + ? D s + D s - K + decay
in Physical Review D
Aaij R
(2023)
Measurement of the Time-Integrated CP Asymmetry in D^{0}?K^{-}K^{+} Decays.
in Physical review letters
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
(2023)
Search for the rare hadronic decay B s 0 ? p p ¯
in Physical Review D