Project Title: LHC Research at Boston University  

John Butler (Principal Investigator)

Zeynep Demiragli (Co-Investigator)

James Rohlf (Co-Investigator)

David Sperka (Co-Investigator)

Indara Suarez (Co-Investigator)

Task A: Energy Frontier Research with ATLAS (Butler)

The Boston University (BU) group contributes to the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) located at the CERN laboratory in Switzerland, in the areas of muon system hardware and operations, upgrade of the ATLAS detector, and physics analysis of LHC data.   The group will use ATLAS data from Runs 2 and 3 of the LHC to search for new physics, with the initial focus on resonant leptoquark production.  The majority of effort will be devoted to the Level 0 Muon MDT Trigger Processor project for the ATLAS detector in the High Luminosity LHC era.  The group will continue to perform maintenance and operations of the ATLAS Muon Spectrometer.

Task C: Energy Frontier Research with CMS (Profs. Demiragli, Rohlf, Sperka, Suarez)

Boston University's principal investigators (Demiragli, Rohlf, Sperka, and Suarez) are well-versed in CMS physics analysis and are immersed in the operation and development of the detector at the LHC at CERN. The group leverages its collective strengths in calorimetry, muon and jet reconstruction, trigger algorithms, and widespread experience in hadron collider physics to take leading roles on many important physics topics. We have traditionally pursued technology projects that are synergistic with our physics interests. Our projects include hadronic calorimeter (HCAL), muon system, endcap timing layer, and inner tracker electronics to successfully read out raw detector data in the harsh LHC environment. The hardware efforts of the group are bolstered by our Electronics Design Facility (EDF) and its permanent staff, whose engineering rates for high energy physics are subsidized by the university.  The activities of the proposed tasks cover detector operation during Run 3, its physics analysis, and the electronics development necessary for the high-luminosity (HL-LHC) era.