Programme of Research in Experimental Particle Physics at the University of Warwick: 2015-2019.

The scope of the proposed research lies in five distinct areas: Higgs and new phenomena searches at the ATLAS Experiment; the physics of particles containing the beauty quark at LHCb; the physics of neutrinos with T2K and SuperNEMO; accelerator research and development for new high intensity proton, muon and neutrino beams; detector R&D. It also includes Outreach and Knowledge Exchange programmes. In more detail: o The ATLAS experiment at CERN, a large, general purpose detector operating at the LHC was designed to search for and study the Higgs boson, as well as new exotic forms of matter. Our initial work will be to support the experiment by contributing to its ability to identify interesting events rapidly for recording and further analysis. We will also contribute to the detailed study of the Higgs boson which was discovered in 2012. We will do this by helping to optimise the coeection of events in which it decays to pairs of tau leptons, heavy relatives of the electron. We will also look for other, heavier exotic new bosons. o We aim to further our research into matter/anti-matter asymmetry (CP Violation) in the decays of Beauty mesons at the LHCb experiment. This is important, because we have shown in past experiments that the leading source of CP violation at the weak scale is consistent with the Standard Model mechanism of CP violation. However, cosmological considerations indicate that there should be other sources of CP violation in Nature, so we aim to make further sensitive tests with beauty mesons, in order to see if any evidence for additional sources of CP violation or other new physics in Nature may appear in such decays. We also plan to study rare decays of B mesons, which may be able to indicate the presence of new types of interactions outside the Standard Model of particle physics. o The elucidation of the properties of neutrinos. These are very light, neutral particles which are emitted, for example, by the sun, and in radioactive beta decay. They have recently been found to oscillate, ie. transmute from one type to another, while they propagate. We have built part of the T2K experiment which is now operating in Japan. Analyses of its data recently found new types of oscillations of muon to electron type neutrinos. We aim to continue running this experiment, to better measure this newly-discovered effect, and also to search for it with anti-neutrinos. We further plan to contribute to the SuperNEMO experiment, which aims to determine the nature of the neutrino as so called Dirac or Majorana particle. The former has distinct anti-particles, while the latter is its own antiparticle. This question may be resolved by searching for double beta decay accompanied by no neutrinos. We will contribute to the analysis of data obtained by a "demonstrator module" attempting to observe such decays. o We propose to continue our research and development of high power accelerators for the generation of proton, muon and neutrino beams. We have in mind future neutrino factories, although other machines could benefit from our research. Such neutrino factories, if built, would continue to develop the theme of research into neutrino oscillations and matter-antimatter asymmetry of neutrinos as outlined above. Such machines could also bring many benefits to medicine and industry. o We propose to continue our research and development of position- and energy-sensitive detectors for applications in neutrino experiments and with potential spin-off applications in industry. o We will continue to develop our outreach programme which includes activities for local schools and articles in popular science publications. o Supported by a strong University strategy and ethos in knowledge exchange, we will continue to pursue all avenues for possible knowledge exchange.