Developing the Track Finder and associated electronics for the upgrade of the CMS detector for the High Luminosity LHC

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN will be the world's highest energy particle accelerator for the foreseeable future, and the only facility capable of investigating some of the highest priority topics in fundamental physics. LHC operation will continue until at least 2035, with ever-increasing performance required from the accelerator complex in order to provide useful statistical reach and from the associated detectors. As such the CMS detector will require significant and comprehensive upgrades in order to maintain performance in the presence of much harsher conditions.

The UK is leading key aspects of the upgrades to the tracking system, end-cap calorimeters and the trigger system. The common element is the development of high throughput digital electronics, and their tailoring to the three specific sub-systems mentioned above. David's PhD is focused on developments for the tracking system, and in particular for the Track Trigger and the associated 'Design, Trigger and Control' board. The work involves developing suitably powerful software and firmware, as well as algorithmic improvements to the track finding and electron identification, as well as integration tests of parts of the overall system at CERN. David will need to design and build the appropriate test set-ups.

Please refer to lead proposal