High Energy Collisions at Hadron Colliders

Suny At Stony Brook, Stony Brook NY

Investigators

Abstract

This proposal requests support for the research program of the high energy physics group at SUNY Stony Brook to explore the character of particle interactions at the smallest distance scales achievable. The group proposes to exploit the upgraded D0 detector currently beginning Run II at the Fermilab Tevatron collider. In addition, the group requests support for its work on the ATLAS detector currently being built for the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and expected to become operational in 2006. For several years the main D0 responsibility of this group has been the liquid-argon calorimeter electronics upgrade to accommodate the higher luminosity and shortened inter-bunch time interval of the Run II Tevatron collider, and for the first and second hardware levels of the trigger, particularly for the preshower and tracking detectors. The group will pursue more incisive triggers on low transverse momentum electrons, such as those from J/Y and semileptonic b-quark decay. The group intends to focus its future physics analysis capability on issues of electroweak symmetry breaking. Specifically, they propose to work on the search for resonances decaying to b b-bar jets, including the Z boson and the hypothesized Higgs particle, as well as make refined measurements of the top-quark and W boson masses. The ATLAS work of the group will be centered on building and commissioning the high voltage feedthrough system for the liquid-argon calorimeters, and the design and test of the readout driver system used to collect trigger and offline data from the calorimeters. The group has entered the building phase for the high voltage system. The readout driver prototype boards are currently being tested and refined. During this award period, the group expects to bring both of these projects to completion. They also will continue their commitment to education and outreach through participation in the QuarkNet program, and several local initiatives related to high schools.