This program of research aims to better understand the Universe at the smallest scales by probing nature's basic symmetries and their relation to the origin of mass. The 2012 discovery of a Higgs boson with mass close to 125 GeV represents both the crowning achievement of the standard model of particle physics and a hint beyond it - how can a light Higgs boson possibly survive huge, destabilizing quantum effects without new, undiscovered physics? Further, dark matter is known to exist from astronomical observations; however, the particle properties of dark matter remain shrouded in mystery. The combined activities of the University of Kansas (KU) group address such basic questions puzzling physics - the origin of mass and the particle nature of dark matter - and have the potential for surprising discoveries that may change the way we understand our physical world. This award will provide support for the KU group's work on the CMS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, a particle physics laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland. Analytically, the group has a broad range of physics interests, including searches for vector-like quarks and the initiation into new searches for evidence of supersymmetry, with emphasis on signatures that emphasize compressed spectra: electroweakino, stop, and slepton decays. A discovery of any of these new particles would transform modern high energy physics.
Technically, KU will continue to work with the CMS tracker system, both to support the current operations and to develop new components for the future high luminosity HL-LHC era. Photon conversion reconstruction will be used to precisely measure the active and passive material of the tracker leading to improvements in systematic uncertainties associated with the modeling of interactions in the tracker material. KU will design, test and build cables that will bring the high-speed electronic signals from the HL-LHC inner pixel tracker modules to optical links on the detector and assess how the full chain of electronic readout performs. This pixel tracker system is critical to the reconstruction of many event types of special interest to the CMS program of discovery science. The group has two major continuing outreach efforts: a long-standing QuarkNet center, through which it engages with area high school physics teachers and their students, and the multimedia Quarked! project that presents modern physics concepts to youth through games, videos, and other web content.
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.
