Academic Staff: P J Bussey, Dr A T Doyle, Dr A W Halley, Dr P J Negus, Dr M Rahman, Dr R St Denis, Professor D H Saxon, Professor K M Smith, Dr P SolerResearch and Related Staff: Dr R L Bates, Dr S D'Auria, Mr A J Flavell, Dr C Glasman, Dr A Lupi, Dr J G Lynch, Mr D J Martin, Mr K Mathieson, Mr G McCance, Dr V O'Shea, Mr M S Passmore, Mr A Pickford, Dr P Roy, Professor I O Skillicorn, Dr A Tcheplakov, Dr A S Thompson, Professor J Vaitkus (visitor), 4 technical staff, 2 workshop staff
Research Students: Ms M S Bell, Mr W Bell, Mr D W Davidson, Mr S Devine, Ms S Farrington, Mr S Hanlon, Mr J Kennedy, Mr J Marchal, Mr G Pellegrini, Mr G Ruggiero, Ms T Unverhau, Mr S Waschke, Mr B Ward
The group has a strong programme of research into the quarks and leptons that are believed to be the fundamental constituents of matter, and in the development of new detectors and technologies for use at present and future accelerators. Computer analysis and simulation capability is maintained (AJF, DJM) principally through UNIX platforms in Glasgow, and links to major processing facilities at RAL, CERN, Geneva and DESY, Hamburg. We have recently obtained funding for `ScotGRID' a computer-grid initiative aimed at the Large Hadron Collider.
First year graduate students have a two-term lecture course.
FURTHER INFORMATION on our research and publications is to be found on web page http://ppewww.ph.gla.ac.uk or from Professor David Saxon, Tel: 0141-330-4673, email: d.saxon@physics.gla.ac.uk
The HERA Collider is the only accelerator facility in the world in which electrons and positrons collide with protons at the highest energies. The Glasgow group is a member team of the ZEUS collaboration and has a leading role in using these collisions to study the basic properties of the photon. Here, the direct production of a high-energy parton pair can be distinguished for the first time from reactions that depend on the photon's internal hadronic structure. We have developed analyses to identify rare final states in these processes, such as the production of photons or multi-jet final states, in order to test our understanding of QCD, and study the photon's hadronic behaviour in detail. Events containing outgoing photons are being used to study the dynamical behaviour of quarks within the proton. The hadronic structure of the photon is also being studied as a function of the virtuality of the photon as this varies between zero for real photons and high values in deep inelastic scattering.
We have also extended our understanding of the interaction of scattered quarks in deep inelastic scattering, where the exchanged virtual photon probes the quark structure of the proton. Fragmentation properties of the struck quark have been investigated via measurements of energy flow and charged particle momentum distributions. These studies have been extended to investigate the recoiling proton fragments as well as to the measurement of the overall topological characteristics of such events, and are exploring the application of QCD theory to a new and challenging environment.
The group works with other UK groups on the calibration and exploitation of the central tracking detector and the development of computing facilities for detector simulation and event reconstruction. We are assisting in software associated with upgrades to the ZEUS detector.
BACK to TOPThe Glasgow CDF group has taken a leading role in the CDF II collaboration at the Fermilab Tevatron during its first commissioning run of the detector as well as conducting all pre and post-installation testing of the silicon detector and leading database operations for the experiment. Physics activities in the b group are established with one thesis analysis on searching for B decays to J/yh nearing completion and the Glasgow group being recognized for providing jet charge tagging tools essential to the mixing and CP violation measurements. The group is also working with the accelerator division to provide calculations of the optimization for the antiproton target to allow for increases in luminosity needed for the detection of the Higgs.
BACK to TOPWe were responsible for the construction of a major portion of the end-cap electromagnetic calorimeters, and, with others, constructed the new precision microvertex detector to identify heavy quark production phenomena and to give additional signatures on searches for Higgs particles and studies of W-boson production, using the new LEP2 facility at CERN. We helped to develop and continue to maintain the laser calibration system for the time-projection chamber on which precision event reconstruction depends.
Physics analysis currently concentrates on the areas of: a) Precision measurements of the W mass both at threshold and above, most recently taking a dominant role in the direct mass reconstruction using semileptonic WW events. b) The search for Standard Model and Supersymmetric Higgs Bosons at the highest energies. Work is concentrated on detecting Higgs decays to heavy quark pairs using their visible signature in the microvertex detector, an area where the Glasgow Group carries a significant responsibility. Running is now completed and we are working on final publications.
BACK to TOPThe group is a member of the ATLAS collaboration. We have responsibility within the UK-Valencia forward cluster for contributions to the construction (ultrasonic wire-bonding) and testing on the forward tracker silicon microstrip modules. We are contributing to the physics simulation studies of low mass Standard Model Higgs produced in association with W and ttbar, and to the inner detector tracker performance, in particular for b-physics.
At present we also supply the Deputy Chair of the ATLAS Collaboration Board and the Inner Detector Institute Board Chair, as well as contributing to the working group which is analysing M&O and other funding requirements during the run-up to machine turn on. We supply the convenor of the forward opto-power harness working group and members to 3 of the remaining 7 forward working groups.
The group plays a leading role in the understanding of the forward SCT at the system level, through our contribution to the CERN based SCT system test laboratory. We are active in the work for the forward services, in particular in the development of the low mass power tapes. The essential requirement of detector tolerance to the extremely high radiation doses in the forward tracker region has led the group to invest considerable effort in studies of the radiation hardness of read-out electronics and of possible ways to enhance the radiation hardness of the detectors. We contribute to both the ATLAS SCT forward detector/module irradiation programme at the CERN PS and the module test beam activities where pre- and post-irradiated modules are characterised.
We are part of the RD48 (ROSE) collaboration which investigated radiation hardening of silicon detectors. We also contributed to the initial experiments that demonstrated the recovery in charge collection of highly irradiated silicon detectors when operated at liquid nitrogen temperatures, known as the Lazarus effect. We continue with this work as a member of the RD38 collaboration, which is investigating this phenomenon further.
To develop the computing framework needed for the Large Hadron Collider we set up the ScotGRID initiative, described below.
BACK to TOPThe Glasgow group is a significant part of the joint UK presence in the LHC-b collaboration which aims to study the effects of CP violation in b decays produced by hadronic collisions at the LHC collider. We have contributed strongly towards the approval of the experiment, and the recent publication and approval of the Technical Design Report for the LHC-b Ring Imaging Cherenkov (RICH) subdetectors.
We have undertaken a major role in the physics understanding, testing and development of the photon detector system for the RICH. After a successful testbeam programme, where gaseous (CF4 and C4F10) and aerogel Cherenkov rings were simultaneously detected, this culminated in the adoption of the pixel Hybrid Photon Detectors (HPD, manufactured by DEP Instruments in the Netherlands) as the baseline option for the LHCb RICH.
The main Glasgow hardware responsibility in the experiment consists in the construction of a production control station where about 250 HPDs (50% of the total to be installed in the experiment) will be tested and characterised. In collaboration with the Rutherford-Appleton Laboratory (RAL) in Oxfordshire we will also take responsibility for the alignment of the RICH detector elements. We are committed to taking a leading role in the physics output of the experiment, with the GEANT4 simulation of detector response as well as the simulation and analysis of expected physics channels.
BACK to TOPWe have recently made a successful JREI bid and obtained £800k funding from SHEFC towards the purchase of computing equipment. This will be used to establish a prototype two site Tier 2 centre in Scotland for the analysis of data from the LHC. The centre will consist of a 128CPU Monte Carlo production facility run by the Glasgow PPE group and a 5TB datastore and associated high-performance server run by Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre.
One of the most important aspects of our JREI bid is to form a collaborative partnership with the vendor to study the optimal configuration of the Monte Carlo production farm and the database server. The Glasgow ScotGRID group is focussing on three areas of research and development:
FURTHER INFORMATION on our research and publications is to be found on web page http://ppewww.ph.gla.ac.uk or from Professor David Saxon, Tel: 0141-330-4673, email: d.saxon@physics.gla.ac.uk