Grant: Subatomic Physics Envelope - Project

The ATLAS experiment at the LHC studies fundamental physics at the high energy and high intensity frontier. It will undergo a major upgrade in 2024 to enable it to profit from an increase of the LHC luminosity by a factor 5 from the current level. ATLAS-Canada will have major roles in this, including in the end-cap of the new inner tracker strips detector. The increased luminosity will allow a much larger (ten times) data set to be accumulated, enabling several important studies to be completed including measurement of the Higgs coupling to muons, and the Higgs self-coupling. It will also increase the mass and cross section ranges of searches for new physics, possibly leading to discovery of supersymmetric particles or dark matter candidates. I have recently joined TRIUMF to develop the design, assembly methods, and quality control, and continue through the assembly, installation and commissioning phases of this ambitious project. In April 2018 I will join the main ATLAS-Canada Project Grant. This proposal is for a bridging grant for one year starting April 2017, to build up a team to prepare the TRIUMF contribution. In addition to myself, the proposed team will have a post-doc, two graduate students, and two undergraduate students. The team will prepare tooling and methods for assembly of silicon strip modules, and for placing these on their mechanical supports, as well as the quality control methods required to ensure a very high proportion of working channels. The proposed research will give an excellent training to the team in particle detectors, and use of state-of-the art instruments such as wire bonders and precision pick-and-place machines.