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ATLAS

The goal of the ATLAS experiment is to investigate fundamental components of matter and their interactions by colliding particles of very high energy in the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) accelerator at CERN. The LHC will deliver two proton beams colliding at energy of 14 TeV and luminosity by two orders of magnitude higher compared to luminosity ever reached in an accelerator. Collection of physical data has started in 2009.

The scientific program of the ATLAS experiment, which is foreseen for about 10 years, comprises fundamental problems related to understanding of nature of the matter. The main goals of the experiments are:

  • discovery and accurate measurements of Higgs boson particle, which is a carrier of field responsible for spontaneous brake of symmetry and for the mass of particles,
  • discovery and investigation of supersymmetric particles and expected symmetry between fermions and bosons
  • investigation the quark-gluon plasma state of the matter,
  • unification of fundamental interactions beyond the standard model
  • verification of concepts of additional dimensions of space.

Given a very high luminosity of the LHC it was necessary to develop for the ATLAS experiment new types of detectors based oh high technologies. New challenges that were practically absent in the past particle physics experiments are due to radian damages in the detectors and in the readout electronics. This applies in particular to the tracking detector, which is mostly based on silicon technologies. The team from the Faculty of Physics and Applied Computer Science of the AGH University of Science and Technology participates in development of new detector technologies, building and commissioning of the detector from the very beginning, i.e. since 1996. This activity is carried out in a close collaboration with the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences. The major task that have been realised by the team are:

  • development of radiation resistant integrated circuits for readout of silicon strip detectors in the SCT (Semiconductor Tracker) detector,
  • development of the concept and building of the gas gain control system for the TRT (Transition Radiation Tracker) detector
  • design and production of high voltage power supply system for biasing silicon strip detector in the SCT - this task has been realised together with the Institute of Nuclear Physics
  • participation in development of HLT (High Level Trigger) steering concept and selection of recorded events
  • development of an algorithm for section of events with electrons in final state at third level trigger
  • trygger configuration for lead-lead collisions
  • production of electroweak bosons with electrons in final states in lead-lead collisions
  • charge particle correlations in pseudorapidity in minimum bias lead-lead collisions
  • minimum bias trigger in proton-proton and lead-lead collisions
  • elliptic flow with pixel tracks.
In parallel with commissioning of the LHC an upgrade program has been started towards the Super-LHC aiming at increasing the luminosity by a factor 10. To use efficiently such a high luminosity the ATLAS detector will require major modification. In particular, a completely new Inner Detector has to be built after about 10 years of running of the present detector. The team from the Faculty of Physics and Applied Computer Science participates already actively in development of the concept of the Upgrade Inner Detector and of advance technologies required for a new detector.

 

 
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