USRA Summer 2013 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 2013. The group comprises seven faculty members: Bailey, Krieger, Orr, Savard, Sinervo, Teuscher (based at CERN) and Trischuk. Project topics and potential supervisors include:

• Physics Studies for ATLAS:
  Simulation of physics events in the ATLAS detector and development of data selection and analysis techniques for specific physics channels, including the recently discovered Higgs boson.
  Contact: savard@physics.utoronto.ca, pekka@physics.utoronto.ca, orr@physics.utoronto.ca, teuscher@physics.utoronto.ca, krieger@physics.utoronto.ca

• ATLAS Diamond Beam Monitor commissioning and installation:
  During the 2013-14 LHC machine stop, ATLAS will be augmenting its beam monitoring and safety system to include a series of diamond pixel tracking telescopes. Our group is currently doing acceptance tests of the first modules as well as performance simulations of the full systems once they go into operation in late 2014.
  Contact: william@physics.utoronto.ca

In 2012, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, in Geneva Switzerland, and ATLAS experiment concluded their first high energy data-taking period. The most exciting thing to emerge from this dataset was the unequivocal observation of a new particle at 125 GeV, with properties consistent with the Standard Model Higgs boson. During 2013 we continue the analysis of this very rich dataset, while the accelerator and detector are being re-furbished to get ready for the next data-taking in 2015.

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. The Toronto group is one of the leaders in a range of physics analyses and ATLAS detector performance studies.

We will also consider applications from students not holding a USRA award, but generally USRA recipients are given priority. There may be the opportunity for some of these students to spend at least part of the summer at CERN.

For more information, contact the people listed above for each position.