ATLAS Group USRA Positions

USRA Summer 2007 Student Positions with the ATLAS Toronto Group

The University of Toronto ATLAS group has several summer student positions open to USRA recipients in the summer of 2007. The group comprises seven faculty members, Bailey, Krieger, Orr, Sinervo, Savard, Teuscher (based at CERN) and Trischuk. Project topics include (and potential supervisors) are:

Physics Studies for ATLAS (Orr, Sinervo, Savard):
Simulation of physics events in the ATLAS detector and development of data selection and analysis techniques for specific physics channels: for example, A Search for Dark Matter at the LHC (Savard).
Analysis of LAr Endcap Calorimeter Testbeam Data (Krieger, Sinervo):
Analysis of data from the ATLAS 2004 Combined Calorimeter Testbeam, which was designed to study the combined performance of the endcap calorimeter system.
ATLAS Beam Conditions Monitor (Trischuk)
ATLAS Detector Commissioning (Krieger, Teuscher):
Work is underway on the preparation of the detector for running with cosmic rays (already in progress for some sub-detectors) and for running during initial operation of the collider. The focus of this project would likely be involvement in the cosmic ray testing of the endcap calorimeter which will likely continue into the summer of 2007. This position may involve travel or relocation to CERN, funding permitting.

In the fall of this year, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, in Geneva Switzerland, will begin operation with colliding beams as part of the machine commissioning phase. These initial collisions will be at 900 GeV centre-of-mass energy. In the spring of 2008,the machine will begin operation at the nominal energy of 14 TeV, opening up an experimental window on physics at the TeV scale for the first time. While many theories exist on the form of physics at the TeV energy scale, but two of the topics that will certainly be address by experiments at the LHC are the existence of the Higgs Boson, the only particle in the Standard Model of Particle Physics that has not yet been experimentally observed) and the existence of supersymmetry, a popular and elegant extenstion to the Standard Model that predicts the existence of new particles at these energy scales.

The ATLAS detector is one of two general purpose detectors that have been designed and constructed for the purpose of recording the results of the high-energy proton-proton collisions produced by the LHC, and investigating physics at this new energy frontier. The ATLAS Canada group has made significant contributions to the detector design and construction. In Toronto, the group was involved in the construction of the Hadronic Forward Calorimeter, which was tested in particle beams at CERN, before being integrated into the ATLAS detector. Analysis of this data is ongoing. The ATLAS detector is now being assembled underground at CERN. Comissioning of parts of the calorimeter will begin in the next couple of months and continue for about a year; The Toronto group will continue to be very involved with this process.

Some of the positions may require travel to CERN.

We will also consider applications from students not holding a USRA award, but generally USRA recipients are given priority.

Contact Professor P. Krieger at krieger@physics.utoronto.ca for more information.