CAREER: Search for Extra Dimensions in Space

Brown University, Providence RI

Investigators

Abstract

This CAREER proposal requests support for an extensive experimental program of searches for extra dimensions (EDs) in space in the Run 2 data to be collected by the D0 experiment at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory Tevatron over the next five years. Most of the proposed searches will be carried out for the first time. This program is based on those channels expected to be most sensitive to various EDs models as well as to other new physics. For some of these channels, a specialized multi-level triggering is required; therefore the design and optimization of the trigger is among the proposed activities. In the channels already studied experimentally, the expected sensitivity is 2-3 times higher than the current best limits for any number of EDs, n > 2, and is comparable to the reach of tabletop gravity experiments for n = 2. This would give D0 an excellent opportunity to either find a signal from EDs or to restrict significantly the allowed parameter space of the various models. While the D0 involvement is the major current activity of the Brown University High Energy Physics (HEP) group, joining one of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiments at CERN, Geneva is a natural next step. Recently, S. Dimopoulos and the PI (and separately S. Giddings and S. Thomas) have proposed a novel signature for large EDs: a possibility of copious black hole production at the LHC and beyond. As a part of the proposed activities, the PI plans to work closely with the ATLAS and CMS collaborations in simulating and studying the phenomenology of black hole production at the LHC. It is also proposed to continue phenomenological research on black hole production at future colliders. This proposal includes a number of synergistic activities, such as the continuous involvement of undergraduate and graduate students in research at the cutting edge of modern particle physics. In particular, it is proposed to expand the newly established ties with the Vietnamese HEP groups via attracting more students from Vietnam to work in the D0 Collaboration by continuing their education in the graduate schools of the US universities involved in D0. Other proposed outreach activities include a number of public lectures and articles in popular science journals on the exciting subject of EDs in space and black holes in the lab.