The physics program at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, Geneva, Switzerland is in full operation, now delivering proton-proton collisions at 8 TeVcollision energy. The Syracuse group is a member of the LHCb experiment which is currently in an intense data-taking phase for 2012, and which will segue into an analysis and upgrade phase during the period 2013-2014. Afterward, operations will resume at 14 TeV collision energy. The LHCb experiment is designed to study beauty and charm decays at a hadron collider and the experiment and the Syracuse group are well-positioned to: (1) make direct measurements of the production and decay properties of these particles, and (2) simultaneously have sensitivity to new physics at high mass scales through the attendant effects of such physics on decay rates, CP violating asymmetries, or polarizations of certain vector states in the beauty and charm particle decays.
Syracuse contributes significantly to the physics program including: measurement of the b-bbar production cross section, determination of b-hadron branching fractions, discovery of a new semileptonic decays of strange neutral B mesons, including first observation of CP Violation in the decay of the strange neutral B meson into a J/psi and f meson. The group is aggressively pursuing these analyses and measuring the CP violating angle gamma and lifetimes of strange neutral B mesons.
In technical and service responsibility to LHCb, Syracuse participation has been very broad, with contributions to the Vertex Locator, Trigger, and Ring Imaging Cherenkov detector testing, and ongoing LHCb operations. The group is active in detector research and development with emphasis on new technologies for the upgraded vertex detector and responsibility for silicon based downstream tracking. The Syracuse group is active in the research and development of highly radiation resistant semiconductor detectors, capable of surviving the vigorous conditions expected at the High Luminosity LHC, and in the development of diamond tracking detectors.
Throughout its research program, Syracuse has maintained an active interest in broadening participation. The group has recently joined QuarkNet and maintains an "Ask a Particle Physicist" website, so that teachers and other members of the community can interact informally with the group. And the group actively encourages and supports younger members of the research team to be actively engaged in the high school classroom.
