Grant: Subatomic Physics Envelope - Major Resources Support Program

Since its last MRS application the Centre for Particle Physics (CPP) at the University of Alberta (Alberta) has seen its program expand, strengthen and diversify. This diversified expansion is due to the prolific field of experimental astroparticle physics, the burgeoning era of ATLAS upgrades and, in the Canadian context, new developments in the arena of accelerator physics. The CPP+ is truly a unique organizational centre of a national consortia based around its cutting-edge, up-to-date and comprehensive technological, manpower and infrastructure resources. This year our MRS program has expanded to include a co-applicant from York University. The CPP+ national consortium now involves co-applicants from Alberta, Queen's University (Queen's), the University of Regina (Regina), University of Toronto (Toronto), and York University (York) - in order to exploit the synergy between particle and astroparticle physics and provide a coherent manpower infrastructure base anchored at, but cnot restricted to, the CPP. We call this new national research consortium ""CPP+"". This comprehensive approach to infrastructure resources described here efficiently addresses the requirements of the groups involved and provides maximum access to the resources with minimum duplication of MRS personnel capability. It also involves significant use of the resource by large number of NSERC SAP users that are not associated with the research activities of the PI or co-applicants of the CPP+ MRS program or at least are not associated with those research projects for which the CPP+ MRS program members have direct responsibility. Access to CPP+ MRS resources is given to all qualified users via two websites that can be accessed via the Institute of Particle Physics and Canadian Institute of Nuclear Physics websites. All applications for resources must be submitted via an online form for free and fair consideration by the CPP+ Operating Committee. Our MRS program also aims to facilitate access by CPP+ researchers to major international resources located inside Canada (e,g. SNOLAB and the TRIUMF SRF facility) and outside Canada (e.g. CERN, IceCube, T2K and Veritas), the equivalent of which is not available in Canada. To sustain our national CPP+ resource we are asking for continued support for an engineer, a detector technologist, and an electronics tech at Alberta as well as an engineer at Toronto. These highly qualified and experienced personnel enable us to design, construct and test detector and Data acquisition systems for particle and astroparticle physics. They include engineers who are familiar with large-scale construction projects, computer aided design, cryogenic construction and RF acceleration structures. Electronics engineers who can design and fabricate cutting edge fast analog and digital electronics. Lastly, CPP+ infrastructure provides unique facilities to measure and control natural backgrounds.