Physicists at Royal Holloway are building and operating particle detectors to hunt for dark matter and study ghostly neutrinos, using experiments buried deep underground and at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. This work addresses two of the biggest gaps in fundamental physics. First, dark matter makes up most of the Universe’s mass but has never been directly detected—only inferred from its gravitational pull. Second, neutrinos may hold the key to why the Universe contains far more matter than antimatter, a puzzle that existing theories cannot explain. The group contributes to the ATLAS experiment (where they helped discover the Higgs boson in 2012), the DEAP-3600 dark matter search, the T2K neutrino experiment in Japan, and future projects like Hyper-K and Lux-Zeplin. This is curiosity-driven fundamental science with no immediate practical application. However, past fundamental particle physics research has given us technologies such as the World Wide Web, medical PET scanners, and superconducting magnets used in MRI machines. A deeper understanding of dark matter and neutrinos could similarly open unexpected doors—for example, in ultra-sensitive sensors, quantum technologies, or new energy detection methods. For now, the direct payoff is a clearer picture of how the Universe works at its most basic level.
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Experimental particle physics addresses some of the fundamental questions about the structure and behaviour of the Universe at the level of the smallest particles of matter, the quarks and the leptons, and the forces acting between them. We are exploring fundamental properties of particles at the the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and also exploring the nature of dark matter and neutrinos by developing and employing novel detection systems. We are contributing to the continued operation of the ATLAS project at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. We have constructed and commissioned electronic systems and the software that drives them. From the beginning of data taking we have played a leading role in searches for exotic particles, the 2012 discovery of the Higgs boson, and studies of properties of the top quark. We are heavily invested in the upgrades to the ATLAS detector, which will allow for the collection of large datasets starting in 2021. Although there is ample indirect evidence for the existence of dark matter as inferred from its gravitational interactions, it has not yet been directly detected in terrestrial laboratories. Direct detection experiments seek to observe dark matter scattering on target detector nuclei. We explore these issues through a world-leading dark matter search on DEAP-3600, a liquid Argon detector with unique potential for scaling to multi-tonne masses, with the DMTPC detector development programme to measure the dark matter wind, and the Lux-Zeplin experiment. The group's expertise in high pressure TPCs is now being utilised to carry out measurements relevant to the study of neutrinos as part of the Hyper-K experiment. Using detection techniques similar to those of our dark matter research, we are also involved in the the puzzle surrounding the matter anti-matter asymmetry in the Universe by studying the elusive neutrino particle. We measure CP violation in the lepton sector using the T2K long baseline neutrino experiment in Japan. Our expertise in accelerator science will allow us to carry out studies for the machine-detector interface for the High Luminosity LHC and ILC. We will also expand the interactions between our phenomenology group and the experimental Neutrino and Dark Matter communities.
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