One of the major intellectual achievements of the 20th century was the development of the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics. This model succeeded in classifying all of the elementary particles known at the time into a hierarchy of groups having similar quantum properties. The validity of this model to date was confirmed by the discovery of the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the CERN laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland. However, the Standard Model as it currently exists, leaves open many questions about the universe. These include why matter dominates over anti-matter in the Universe (CP violation), the values of the masses of the fundamental constituents of matter, the quarks and the leptons, the size of the mixings among the quarks, and separately among the leptons, and the properties of dark matter. Most explanations require the presence of new forces and the development of concepts that now constitute what we call physics Beyond the Standard Model (BSM). This award supports research that addresses those questions that dominate BSM physics. The research will be carried out at the LHC, which is the premier High Energy Physics particle accelerator in the world and one of the foremost facilities for answering these BSM questions.
The University of Cincinnati group is a collaboration member of LHCb, an experiment designed specifically to study the decays of hadrons containing b or c quarks at the LHC. A goal of LHCb is to identify new physics in nature by examining the properties of hadrons containing these quarks. New physics, or new forces, can be manifest by particles as yet to be discovered, whose presence would modify decay rates and CP violating asymmetries of the hadrons containing the b and c quarks, and thus allow new phenomena to be observed indirectly.
This award will allow the University of Cincinnati group to further its study of rare decays of such heavy quark systems. Such decays can provide a unique window into physics at an energy scale well beyond that accessible by explicit production of new particles at colliders. The Cincinnati group's emphasis will be on charm quark physics, in which the group has established expertise. Any discovery of BSM physics would be a huge step forward in our understanding of the fundamental physics of the universe. This award will also facilitate the group's participation in the LHCb detector upgrade, that will improve the overall ability of the experiment to fully exploit the LHC data recorded through the next decade.
The Cincinnati group has a strong companion education and outreach program focused on its QuarkNet Center and its conduct of Masterclasses. Many students who join the research effort are introduced to and engaged in the excitement of the science through these programs and through the group's participation in the University's Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) program.
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.
