This award is to support a group of four professors at the University of California, Santa Cruz in two areas: (1) particle accelerator research and Cherenkov ring imaging detector development, using the linear e plus e minus collider at SLAC; and (2) a particle astrophysics experiment at Los Alamos using the CYGNUS detector array. The experiment at SLAC focusses upon measurements of properties of the weak neutral boson - the Z zero - and makes use of a spectrometer built from state-of-the-art particle detection devices which this group has helped to develop and fabricate. The astrophysics experiments are concerned with observation of cosmic ray showers, particularly those due to neutral particles emanating from cosmic point sources. The investigators bring a good deal of expertise in particle physics methodology to the astrophysics enterprises and plan, for example, to make significant improvements to the angular resolution of CYGNUS to aid in identification of the sources. A number of other contributions to both performance of CYGNUS and analysis of the data from it are also expected.
