CAREER: Pixel Powered Discoveries at the LHC and Beyond

About This Grant

Measurements at high energy colliders are critical to understand the fundamental particle content of the universe. The Standard Model of particle physics provides the best known description of this content, but we know it is incomplete. Natural phenomena such as dark matter, as well as theoretical questions related to naturalness, strongly suggest the existence of undiscovered particles at or around scales probed by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). This research program seeks to enable their discovery with novel search strategies and cutting-edge pixel detector development. The educational component of this program seeks to lay the foundation for the long-term future of high energy physics with outreach and workforce development. PI DiPetrillo’s group will work primarily on the ATLAS experiment at the LHC. Her group will target scenarios with long-lived particles, which decay a measurable distance from the collision point. Her group will use innovative trigger, reconstruction, and analysis techniques to access this challenging and uncharted territory in the Run 3 ATLAS dataset. To fully explore the TeV scale at the upcoming High Luminosity LHC, her group will also build and commission a new ATLAS pixel detector. In parallel, she will lay the groundwork for energy breakthroughs at future colliders by leading physics and pixel detector studies for a future Muon Collider. Finally, this program will pursue a coherent education program designed to inspire, educate, and train the next generation of STEM leaders, seed public interest and support for future colliders, and pave the way for future discoveries. PI DiPetrillo will incorporate a new science communication component into UChicago’s undergraduate physics curriculum and expand outreach efforts in the local community. 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.