Search for the Higgs Boson at the ATLAS Experiment
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Warwick
Department Name: Physics
Abstract
Over a century of study has led physicists to develop the Standard Model theory (SM) of the building blocks of matter and the forces among them. This combines the strong force which binds quarks into nuclei, the weak force which explains radioactivity and the electromagnetic force which holds electrons in atoms. To date, it is the most accurately tested scientific theory, verified to a few parts per billion! Given this amazing success you may wonder why scientists have any doubts about the theory. However, one piece is missing: understanding the generation of mass. Despite all of the SM's testable predictions, it cannot predict any particle's mass (and by extension cannot explain your or my weight). This challenge inspires theories ranging from tweaks of the SM, to more outlandish, but possibly true, theories which require a plethora of new particles, possibly accounting for dark matter. In 1964 Peter Higgs, now Edinburgh professor emeritus, proposed an elegant solution to the mass generation problem requiring only one new particle. This 'boson' grabs hold of other particles and the stronger it holds on, the heavier they become. The eponymous Higgs boson has been a holy grail of fundamental science ever since. Although the Higgs boson was devised to generate mass, its own mass is unspecified. Scientists worldwide have searched for it unsuccessfully, ruling out large mass ranges and driving the search to increasingly high energies. Evidence from other precision data now predicts that if the SM Higgs boson exists, it can be found at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the European Centre for Particle Physics (CERN) which will collide protons in a 27km underground ring at unprecedented energies in 2008. There, we should find the long-awaited SM Higgs boson or, possibly, a boson with unexpected properties revealing that more complex dynamics occur in nature, prompting an entire re-think or extension of the SM. If it exists, my proposed programme will discover the SM Higgs boson in the experimentally favoured low mass range. If not, I may find nature's Higgs surrogate. My careful study will identify which of these scenarios is realised. I will search data from the ATLAS experiment at LHC, analysing 10 billion catalogued collisions, a task likened to finding one phone number in a 1000 directories. However, this is no random search since we know how to look for this 'number': we can do the equivalent of finding out the person's surname by looking for known characteristics of the Higgs boson in data! Theoretical understanding of the boson and experimental skill will pinpoint it in the midst of the maelstrom of activity in energetic proton collisions. I will build and lead a team in the Oxford ATLAS group to find the Higgs boson in its decay to two tau leptons or bottom quarks. With careful analysis of the data, these will provide distinctive experimental fingerprints. Simulations show that these decays will yield the five statistical standard deviations 'gold standard' of convincing discovery. The combination of the group's expertise and my in-depth experience from the USA's Tevatron collider will provide a firm foundation for each member of the team to study one element of the signature. For example by homing in on datasets which contain signatures of known particles which decay like the Higgs boson, the identification algorithms can be honed. Finding the tau lepton or bottom quark requires algorithms which I will base on my experience of precision measurements in the bottom quark sector. These studies will characterise the ATLAS hardware enabling us to search the phonebooks of nature which the experiment provides. We cannot be sure that the Standard Model Higgs boson exists, but we can be certain that the hunt for the Higgs will be a fascinating journey whose destination may prove Peter Higgs right, or even more excitingly, that nature is richer and more complex than he imagined.
People |
ORCID iD |
Sinead Farrington (Principal Investigator / Fellow) |
Publications
Aad G
(2011)
Measurement of the ? ( 1 S ) production cross-section in pp collisions at s = 7 TeV in ATLAS
in Physics Letters B
Aad G
(2012)
Measurement of the transverse momentum distribution of W bosons in p p collisions at s = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector
in Physical Review D
Aad G
(2012)
Search for a supersymmetric partner to the top quark in final states with jets and missing transverse momentum at sqrt[s] = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector.
in Physical review letters
Aad G
(2014)
Measurement of the mass difference between top and anti-top quarks in pp collisions at s = 7 TeV using the ATLAS detector
in Physics Letters B
Aad G
(2013)
Measurement of the $t\bar{t}$ production cross section in the tau + jets channel using the ATLAS detector
in The European Physical Journal C
Aad G
(2011)
Measurement of the production cross section for W-bosons in association with jets in pp collisions at s = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector
in Physics Letters B
Aad G
(2010)
Commissioning of the ATLAS Muon Spectrometer with cosmic rays
in The European Physical Journal C
Aad G
(2012)
Search for TeV-scale gravity signatures in final states with leptons and jets with the ATLAS detector at s = 7 TeV
in Physics Letters B
Aad G
(2013)
Evidence for the spin-0 nature of the Higgs boson using ATLAS data
in Physics Letters B
Aad G
(2013)
Search for single b ? -quark production with the ATLAS detector at s = 7 TeV
in Physics Letters B
Aad G
(2014)
Search for Invisible Decays of a Higgs Boson Produced in Association with a Z Boson in ATLAS
in Physical Review Letters
Aad G
(2013)
Measurement of charged-particle event shape variables in inclusive ( s ) = 7 TeV proton-proton interactions with the ATLAS detector
in Physical Review D
Aad G
(2011)
Measurement of the inclusive isolated prompt photon cross section in p p collisions at s = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector
in Physical Review D
Aad G
(2011)
Search for the Higgs Boson in the H ? W W ? l ? j j Decay Channel in p p Collisions at s = 7 TeV with the ATLAS Detector
in Physical Review Letters
Aad G
(2013)
Measurement of Z boson production in Pb-Pb collisions at sqrt[s(NN)]=2.76 TeV with the ATLAS detector.
in Physical review letters
Aad G
(2012)
Search for first generation scalar leptoquarks in pp collisions at s = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector
in Physics Letters B
Aad G
(2014)
Measurement of the top quark pair production charge asymmetry in proton-proton collisions at $ \sqrt{s} $ = 7 TeV using the ATLAS detector
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Aad G
(2012)
Search for the Higgs boson in the H ? W W ? l ? j j decay channel at s = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector
in Physics Letters B
Aad G
(2012)
Search for tb resonances in proton-proton collisions at vs=7 TeV with the ATLAS detector.
in Physical review letters
Aad G
(2011)
Search for stable hadronising squarks and gluinos with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC
in Physics Letters B
Aad G
(2013)
Searches for heavy long-lived sleptons and R-hadrons with the ATLAS detector in pp collisions at s = 7 TeV
in Physics Letters B
Aad G
(2013)
Measurement of the flavour composition of dijet events in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}=7\ \mbox{TeV}$ with the ATLAS detector
in The European Physical Journal C
Aad G
(2014)
Study of heavy-flavor quarks produced in association with top-quark pairs at s = 7 TeV using the ATLAS detector
in Physical Review D
Aad G
(2011)
Measurement of the transverse momentum distribution of Z / ? ? bosons in proton-proton collisions at s = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector
in Physics Letters B
Aad G
(2012)
Search for extra dimensions using diphoton events in 7 TeV proton-proton collisions with the ATLAS detector
in Physics Letters B
Aad G
(2013)
Search for long-lived stopped R -hadrons decaying out of time with p p collisions using the ATLAS detector
in Physical Review D
Aad G
(2011)
Search for a Heavy Particle Decaying into an Electron and a Muon with the ATLAS Detector in s = 7 TeV p p collisions at the LHC
in Physical Review Letters
Aad G
(2012)
Search for the Standard Model Higgs boson in the H ? W W ( ? ) ? l ? l ? decay mode with 4.7 fb - 1 of ATLAS data at s = 7 TeV
in Physics Letters B
Aad G
(2013)
Search for new phenomena in the W W ? l ? l ' ? ' final state in pp collisions at s = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector
in Physics Letters B
Aad G
(2012)
Search for resonant top quark plus jet production in t t ¯ + jets events with the ATLAS detector in p p collisions at s = 7 TeV
in Physical Review D
Aad G
(2012)
Rapidity gap cross sections measured with the ATLAS detector in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 7 \mbox{~TeV}$
in The European Physical Journal C
Aad G
(2011)
Measurements of underlying-event properties using neutral and charged particles in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}=900$ GeV and $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC
in The European Physical Journal C
Aad G
(2013)
Measurement of the Azimuthal Angle Dependence of Inclusive Jet Yields in Pb + Pb Collisions at s N N = 2.76 TeV with the ATLAS Detector
in Physical Review Letters
Aad G
(2012)
Search for the standard model Higgs boson in the diphoton decay channel with 4.9 fb(-1) of pp collision data at vs=7 TeV with ATLAS.
in Physical review letters
Aad G
(2012)
Measurements of the electron and muon inclusive cross-sections in proton-proton collisions at s = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector
in Physics Letters B
Aad G
(2011)
Search for contact interactions in dimuon events from p p collisions at s = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector
in Physical Review D
Aad G
(2012)
Observation of a new particle in the search for the Standard Model Higgs boson with the ATLAS detector at the LHC
in Physics Letters B
Aad G
(2011)
Search for massive long-lived highly ionising particles with the ATLAS detector at the LHC
in Physics Letters B
Aad G
(2011)
Measurement of the inclusive and dijet cross-sections of b-jets in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}=7\mbox{~TeV}$ with the ATLAS detector
in The European Physical Journal C
Description | Higgs boson searches for tau leptons yielded observation in 2015. |
Exploitation Route | Fundamental science understanding. |
Sectors | Other |