RUI: Searches for New Physics with the CMS Detector at the LHC

Siena University, Loudonville NY

Investigators

Abstract

This is a project by Siena College to carry out fundamental research with the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, at the CERN laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland. The Siena group participates in the experiment through an association with the Cornell University high-energy physics group. Siena undergraduates contribute to physics analyses that probe some of the most fundamental questions in physics. The group has contributed to a measurement of the differential cross section for production of high momentum top/antitop quark pairs, supported the CMS data preservation efforts with brand new educational tools, restarted an effort to search for baryon-number violating (BNV) decays of the top quark, and engaged local high school teachers and their students to teach them about this exciting work. The group now leads efforts to search for BNV decays of the top quark with Run II data, developing novel approaches along the way. New efforts in data preservation and speculative dark matter searches are also part of this project. Siena will continue this effort primarily to use these data for education, outreach, and training. The observed matter/antimatter asymmetry in the universe is 8 orders of magnitude larger than can be accommodated by the combination CP violation in the quark sector and baryon-number violating processes allowed in the Standard Model. The most striking consequence of this would be proton decay, but extensive searches for this process have yielded no signal. If BNV is mediated by a boson that operates through a more complicated flavor/generation structure, then it may manifest more strongly in higher generation quarks and leptons. The Siena group will expand the search for BNV decays of the top quark, any observation of which would transform particle physics. The nature of dark matter is one of the most significant outstanding questions in physics and a key missing element of the Standard Model. The Siena group will carry out new speculative dark matter searches in which the CMS detector is used in a direct detection mode, looking for large deposits of energy not associated with a bunch crossing, and in indirect detection mode, searching for standard model particles pointing up from the ground and originating from the decay of dark matter particles gravitationally trapped in the Earth. Through this project, Siena College students have the opportunity to contribute to physics analyses and to present their work at conferences and carry out their research at major world laboratories. These efforts will focus on both exciting the general public about what humanity is learning about Nature and how the Universe works, but also on encouraging young people to consider careers in STEM fields. The Siena group emphasizes reaching out to women and other traditionally underrepresented groups in physics in local high schools. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.