Heavy Flavour physics with the ATLAS detector

With the discovery of the Higgs Boson, the ATLAS experiment has added one fundamental building block to the Standard Model of particle physics. The next challenge is discovering what lies beyond this model. Although potentially hard to find directly, precision measurements in known sectors of the Standard Model can pinpoint discrepancies with respect to its predictions, therefore producing indications of new physics phenomena.

The Flavour sector is one of the richest well-modelled precision domains where these discrepancies are still to be fully explored.

Thanks to the high luminosity provided by the LHC, the ATLAS experiment can achieve unprecedented precision in some of these measurements, which range from stringent determinations of particle properties (product ion mechanisms, lifetimes etc.) to the search and identification of properties of new particles.

The student will join the ATLAS Heavy Flavour analysis activities through the Sussex group, taking a leading role in one of its analyses. He will have also the possibility of participating in hardware and software based projects related to the ATLAS experiment event selection system (Trigger). Due to the centrality of CERN-based activities in this project, frequent and possibly also extended trips to CERN and collaborating institutes are envisaged.