The Exploitation and Upgrade of the CMS and LHCb Experiments, Detector R&D and NA62

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the largest particle accelerator to be built at CERN. It is the highest energy particle accelerator ever built, with a 27 km circumference, 100 m underground, straddling the French and Swiss border outside of Geneva. It will smash together protons travelling at 99.999999% of the speed of light 40 million times per second. With this machine, conditions similar to those a billionth of a second after the Big Bang will be reproduced. The Bristol particle physics group participate in 2 of the major experiments at the LHC, CMS and LHCb. The LHC is a discovery machine. The Standard Model of particle physics has been extremey successful in describing the physics of the Universe to date, but we know it to be incomplete. The Standard Model does not explain dark matter or dark energy, neutrino oscillations, or why the matter left in the universe wasn't destroyed by antimatter created at the big bang. The Standard Model recognizes four forces: electromagnetic force; the weak nuclear force; the strong nuclear force as well as gravity. It is believed that these forces could be different manifestation of something more fundamental. With the highest energies created to date, collisions at the LHC will push forward the frontiers of particle physics where we hope to find new physics particles and processes to explain these phenomenon. The Bristol group will be at the fore of answering these fundamental questions. The physics opportunities demand the development of novel sensors, detector systems and advanced computing techniques. These developments are at the cutting edge of technology. The Bristol group will be at the forefront in developing these systems for future experiments but also ensuring the knowledge generated will be transferred to the wider economy for enhanced productivity and economic growth.