High energy particle physics is about looking at extremely small
sizes, or equivalently at extremely high energies. It teaches us about
the underlying nature of the physical universe, and the forces and
laws that govern its development, from the first moments of the big
bang, through to the present day, and far into the future.
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The High Energy Physics Group comprises about 50 staff and 20
PhD students. Our current programme includes:
As well as challenging our theories, experiments capable of reaching these extremes of energy and size are very technically challenging. The challenges include devising precision detectors which can operate in hostile environments, particle accelerators which can achieve high energy collisions, super-sensitive detectors capable of identifying very rare decays with very small ''background noise'', high-speed electronics which can read out millions of pieces of information per second, and robust, flexible software which can analyse the data in a distributed computing system all over the world. Within the group we have expertise in all of these areas.
- Analysis of electron-proton collisions at the ZEUS experiment at HERA.
- Data taking and analysis of proton-antiproton collisions with the CDF experiment at Fermilab.
- Neutrino physics with the MINOS long baseline neutrino oscillation experiment.
- Searching for neutrinoless double-beta decay with the NEMO-III experiment, and development towards the SuperNEMO experiment.
- Construction of, and preparation for analysis of data from, the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider.
- Research and Development towards the International Linear Electron-Positron Collider.
- Development of techniques for detection of high-energy neutrinos from outer space.
- Development of theories and models to guide new experiments help this interpretation of the the results.
As well as challenging our theories, experiments capable of reaching these extremes of energy and size are very technically challenging. The challenges include devising precision detectors which can operate in hostile environments, particle accelerators which can achieve high energy collisions, super-sensitive detectors capable of identifying very rare decays with very small ''background noise'', high-speed electronics which can read out millions of pieces of information per second, and robust, flexible software which can analyse the data in a distributed computing system all over the world. Within the group we have expertise in all of these areas.
Copyright © 2004-2012 UCL HEP group, (last modified 16 Jan 2009)