Experimental Particle Physics Research at Hadron Colliders

University Of Illinois At Chicago, Chicago IL

Investigators

Abstract

This proposal requests support for an ongoing research program of experimental High Energy Physics at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). The research activities of the group are concentrated on the D0 experiment at Fermilab and the CMS experiment at CERN. During the period covered by this proposal, they plan to (1) continue their activities in the D0 physics program working on top-quark physics and Higgs searches, (2) work on the development and lead the installation, shakedown, and commissioning of the D0 Level-1 Calorimeter Trigger Upgrade in preparation for Run IIb, (3) maintain, operate, and improve the Level-2 Calorimeter Trigger that they built, (4) monitor, simulate, and operate the D0 Silicon Microstrip Tracker, (5) increase their effort in the CMS Silicon Outer Tracker, and (6) establish a long-term physics program at CMS. The broader impacts of the proposed activities are multiple and diverse. The technological advances of high-energy physics frontier experiments help all sciences and engineering. The challenges that must be overcome for building and commissioning complicated trigger and silicon systems enhance the disciplinary knowledge in the relevant engineering fields. The most mature outreach activity of the UIC group, namely the QuarkNet program, fosters collaboration between high school teachers and the UIC group members, thus strengthening teaching and learning in Chicago area high schools.