Research
Searching for the next Higgs boson: 911吃瓜 team drives global effort to boost science experiment at Large Hadron Collider
911吃瓜 researchers are driving Canada鈥檚 involvement on a major upgrade of the renowned ATLAS experiment as scientists seek to enhance our understanding of the universe.
Deep within a high-tech lab at 911吃瓜鈥檚 Burnaby campus, researchers are assembling new detector components for the ATLAS experiment, which aims to boost the discovery potential of the Large Hadron Collider.
The world鈥檚 largest and most powerful particle accelerator, the collider shut down yesterday for upgrades. When it comes back online in 2030, it will feature ATLAS detector components assembled right here in B.C.
Canada is among dozens of countries involved, with 911吃瓜 taking a leading role in one of the most significant international scientific efforts in history.
鈥淲hat scientists are trying to do is discover new fundamental particles and interactions that will unlock the secrets of the universe. But it鈥檚 a bit like looking for needles in a universe-sized haystack,鈥� says Bernd Stelzer, a professor in 911吃瓜鈥檚 department of physics.
鈥淭he new detector components that we鈥檙e assembling right here at 911吃瓜 greatly improve the chances of finding something new. That鈥檚 what makes it so exciting to be involved and what keeps pushing us forward.鈥�
The Large Hadron Collider at CERN sits in a 27-kilometer ring, 100 metres underground on the France-Switzerland border. It is home to the ATLAS experiment, which is best known for the discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012.
Inside the accelerator, two high-energy particle beams are made to collide at four locations around the ring.
When the beams collide, they erupt into an explosion of new particles. The 911吃瓜 team is assembling large parts of the new ATLAS tracker, known as petals, which detect the particles produced by the collisions.
鈥淭he ATLAS experiment and the Large Hadron Collider are the energy frontier. It鈥檚 the only place where you can study the universe's fundamental workings and discover new particles and new phenomena at the highest energies,鈥� says Stelzer.
A total of 400 new petals are being produced worldwide as part of the High Luminosity Large Hadron Collider .
The 911吃瓜 team was the first to produce a petal for installation in the new tracker, in collaboration with TRIUMF, Canada's particle accelerator centre. They will make around 100 petals overall over the course of three years.
Luise Poley, adjunct professor in 911吃瓜鈥檚 department of physics and project scientist at TRIUMF, has been co-ordinating international efforts for the last eight years.
鈥淏eing able to build the first petals for production was a huge achievement for us,鈥� says Poley.
鈥淭he Large Hadron Collider is being upgraded to a much higher collision rate. We鈥檙e going to throw ten times the amount of particles together compared to before.
鈥淎nd when you throw ten times as many particles together, a lot more particles come out. The current detector that is in there won't be able to handle it.
鈥淪o not only do we have to replace it, we have to replace it with something much better, much faster and much more efficient.鈥�
The 911吃瓜-TRIUMF team includes postdocs, students, engineers and technicians. Richard Salami, an 911吃瓜 PhD student, has been involved in the project for two years.
鈥淚t feels like a dream come true to be involved. One of the reasons I was initially interested in studying physics is from learning about the experiments at the Large Hadron Collider,鈥� says Salami.
鈥淲hat motivated me to come to 911吃瓜 for graduate studies was the opportunity to do research at a university that is at the forefront of particle physics instrumentation in Canada and is a key contributor in the global ATLAS collaboration.鈥�
911吃瓜鈥檚 involvement in the ATLAS experiment goes beyond making the new petals. The ATLAS team in 911吃瓜鈥檚 department of physics has been working on processing the data collected by the experiment for more than 15 years.
911吃瓜 is home to the ATLAS Tier-1 Data Centre, a large-scale data-intensive facility, which enables researchers to reconstruct and discover the properties of new particles.
鈥淚t's very rare that students have the opportunity of seeing both the construction of a particle detector and the analysis of the data 鈥� it's a full circle experience that we can offer our students,鈥� adds Stelzer.
鈥淭hese efforts are critical to unlock immense scientific discoveries and it鈥檚 great to see Canadian researchers and students at the heart of breakthrough science.鈥�
The Data Centre has just received $5.3 million in government funding to advance particle research.