New Higgs Bosons in CMS

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN is about to start it third data taking run (Run 3) which will double the current datasets. This project is to work on the general purpose CMS experiment, which is capable of searching for evidence of new fundamental particles. We know that the current model that describes fundamental particles and their interactions (the Standard Model) is incomplete.

Many theoretical models that describe possible physics beyond the Standard Model require extended Higgs sectors that include Higgs bosons lighter than the Higgs boson discovered at the LHC in 2012. In this project, the student will use the data collected in Run 3 to perform analyses that will search for evidence of these possible new light Higgs bosons. In addition, the student will work on the future upgrade of the CMS experiment which will enable it to operate at the High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) that is due to start taking data in about 2029. The student will develop algorithms that are simple enough to quickly decide whether a particular interaction is potentially interesting and hence to direct it to permanent storage on disk. Such storage facilities are limited and efficient decisions help to reduce resource requirements and hence the cost of the large data storage systems.

The project will be a collaboration between the experimental Particle Physics group at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and the high-energy physics group at the University of Southampton. This builds on a long-standing collaboration begun in 2004 in the context of the NExT Institute (https://www.next-institute.ac.uk).