Experimental Studies of the Higgs Mechanism in the Standard Model and Beyond

This award provides funding for research using data recorded by the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The analyses carried out will advance our understanding of the universe at the highest energies, and therefore shortest distances, ever explored in a laboratory setting. Production and decay properties of the Higgs Boson will be measured, which, according to our best theoretical models, is responsible for all mass in the universe and which plays a crucial role in the ultimate stability of the universe. The group will also use the data to search for evidence of new physics associated with Higgs Boson reactions which are not currently included in accepted theories. This work gives undergraduate and graduate students an opportunity to participate in leading edge scientific research and instrumentation development. The students and postdocs to be supported by this project, through their own technical work and research and their work with engineers and technicians, prepares them for research in careers in academia, industry and other areas which require technical skills. This work will be performed using LHC Run 3 data in final states associated with the standard model reactions pp→H→bb, pp→HH→bbττ and pp→H→μμ. The proposed effort will search for the reaction pp → H → aa → bbμμ and also reactions with lepton, neutrino and dijet final states. These searches could yield long sought discoveries of Beyond the Standard Model physics. The last of these channels will measure vector boson scattering processes associated with Higgs interactions which are required to establish unitarity in the standard model. The work will also carry out detector operations of the current detector and upgrades for high luminosity for the tracking system and liquid Argon calorimeter system. 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.