This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). The primary scientific goal of the project is to upgrade the capabilities of the LHCb experiment at the CERN LHC. It will enable the experiment to make precise measurements that determine the fundamental parameters of nature with little or no theoretical uncertainty. The measurements of the four CP violating angles alpha, beta, gamma and phi sub s, present such an opportunity. The significant increase in LHCb trigger and data handling capabilities will enable the collaboration to increase the statistics on any given channel by one to two orders of magnitude. This will allow much more precise determination of these fundamental parameters.
This MRI award will fund work on the redesign of the LHCb tracker to accommodate the upgraded Pixel detector with a granularity of 50 by 400 microns. The proposal includes: i) The development of a sensor capable of operating in a high rate, high radiation environment. ii) Development and testing of Front End Electronics with a goal to clock data at 40 MHz and to achieve low noise and low cross-talk rates. iii) Hybridization: This involves connecting the sensor and front end electronics. Different techniques are being considered and will be evaluated. iv) Tests and evaluation including: a) Development of test set up with fast data extraction. b) Performance evaluation before and after radiation to measure the radiation hardness of the detectors. c) Characterization and validation of the expected performance using particle beams at FNAL.
A broader impact builds upon a commitment to a strong presence in the community and reaching out to under-represented minorities in the science and technology disciplines. One of the pixel devices can be used as a module in teaching and outreach that includes undergraduate education as well as high school outreach both with web tools and visits to schools in the local community, and workshops targeting high school girls.
