ATLAS is helping us to learn about the basic forces that have shaped our universe since the beginning of time and that will determine its fate. We have already made a big step forward and discovered an important missing piece of our so-called Standard Model, which is the Higgs boson. However, we also know, the Standard Model cannot be the ultimate theory and now we are searching for physics beyond this model by making precision measurements of our known physics processes. Among the possible unknowns are the origin of mass, extra dimensions of space, microscopic black holes, and evidence for dark matter candidates in the universe.
The RAL PPD group had responsibility for the original construction of the
Level 1 Calorimeter Trigger,
High Level Trigger, and
Semi-Conductor Tracker (SCT). Now we are operating the detector and contributing to the physics analysis. We are also heavily involved in the upgrades of these components, needed for the
HL-LHC luminosity upgrade, when we expect to have around 200 collisions overlapping with any interesting one. We will continue to work on the Level 1 Calorimeter Trigger and the
High Level Trigger as well as the replacement for the SCT, which is called the Inner Tracker (ITk).
Including Ph.D. students, the group currently contains 23
people, some of whom are resident at CERN. We have multiple
physics interests, including B physics, Higgs measurements, and searches for heavy bosons.