Research in High Energy Physics on the CMS Experiment

This is a project to carry out fundamental research with the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. The discovery of the Higgs mechanism at the LHC motivates new questions about the universe: Why is the Higgs boson so light? Is there more than one Higgs Boson particle?

Is the Higgs boson produced and does it decay at the rate predicted by the Standard Model of particle physics? Motivated by these questions, this project will include searches for new particles in the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment at the LHC. Over the next 5-years, CMS detector components will be replaced to cope with the high radiation environment at the upgraded High Luminosity LHC, which will deliver an extremely high rate of proton-proton collisions.

This project also includes contributions to the construction and testing of a new pixel detector, which is both necessary and critical for CMS to perform its physics goals after the upgrade.

The upgrade of the CMS Forward Pixel detector will require the development of innovative radiation-tolerant technologies, which have the potential to directly enhance the lifespan of detectors used in space research and in medical applications. The PNW group will continue its commitments to undergraduate research, community outreach, K-12 engagement, and teacher training.

Through their participation in the LHC upgrades they will engage undergraduate students in detector construction and testing efforts. The PNW QuarkNet center will host an annual Masterclass, where students from local high schools will have the opportunity to visit the university and analyze real CMS data, and an annual K-12 teacher training workshop.

Through their research program, courses, and QuarkNet center, they plan to enable the participation of underrepresented groups in physics research, and to inspire and train the next generation of young scientists and engineers.

The high energy physics group at Purdue University Northwest (PNW) focuses their effort on the Forward Pixel detector subsystem for the CMS experiment. After their contributions to the construction of the Forward Pixel detectors, their current thrust is on the assembly and testing of the high luminosity upgrade and assuring the quality of physics datasets to the CMS experiment.

Building on the discovery of the Standard Model Higgs boson, the PNW group is also working on searches for new heavy particles that decay to a top quark pair, new spin-2 heavy particles that decay to two Z bosons, and a new search for a new heavy resonance decaying to intermediate resonances.

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.