| NSF Org: |
PHY Division Of Physics |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | August 17, 2018 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | June 22, 2020 |
| Award Number: | 1806759 |
| Award Instrument: | Continuing Grant |
| Program Manager: |
James Shank
jshank@nsf.gov (703)292-4516 PHY Division Of Physics MPS Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences |
| Start Date: | September 1, 2018 |
| End Date: | August 31, 2021 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $441,089.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $441,089.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
FY 2019 = $145,319.00 FY 2020 = $148,411.00 |
| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
259 BLVD ALFONSO VALDES MAYAGUEZ PR US 00680-6475 (787)831-2065 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
PR US 00681-9000 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): |
HEP-High Energy Physics, PHYSICS-BROADEN PARTICIPATION |
| Primary Program Source: |
01001920DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01002021DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT |
| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.049 |
ABSTRACT
The Standard Model of particle physics has been a successful theory, agreeing with decades of experimental observations involving weak, electromagnetic, and strong interactions. The discovery of the Higgs boson at the LHC was further confirmation of this success. However, the Standard Model remains an incomplete theory. This research focuses on probing the nature of the Universe at the smallest scales and its basic symmetries with the goal of understanding the stability of mass, the quantum nature of dark matter, and the relation of gravity to subatomic forces and extra spatial dimensions. This program is centered on the CMS experiment currently running at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. The precise measurements of the properties of the Higgs boson at the LHC could give insight into the nature of mass and the nature of electroweak symmetry breaking. The LHC might unveil lighter mass candidates for Supersymmetry, a theory that naturally explains electroweak symmetry breaking. The precise measurement of 'missing energy' could unveil signatures of many undiscovered particles, some of which could be candidates for Dark Matter. Missing energy could also account for the graviton escaping in extra-dimensions or for other exotic particles.
The primary focus of this research is to exploit the capabilities of the newly installed CMS pixel detector to pursue searches for Supersymmetry. This new detector has an extra barrel and endcap layers, a reduced material profile, a new readout chip to minimize data losses due to high pile-up of LHC events, and an optimized detector layout for 4-pixel-hit coverage over the full CMS pseudorapidity range. These improvements translate to higher tracking efficiencies, lower fake-track rates, lower dead-time/data-loss, an extended lifetime of the detector, all leading to better muon identification, b-quark tagging, photon/electron identification, tau reconstruction, improved "particle flow" analysis, and missing energy reconstruction. An improved signal selection efficiency due to improved b-tagging and better missing energy estimation is central to this analysis program to discover Supersymmetry. This effort will also include activities in design and development of additional pixel detector upgrades while maintaining support of Pixel Detector Operations. This challenge of building, commissioning, and maintaining a state-of-the-art silicon detector provides workforce development opportunities in physics and engineering. The data analyses techniques and related algorithms, hardware instrumentation, grid computing, and big data science opportunities carried out in this award give students valuable experience and knowledge enabling them to pursue successful careers in academia or the private sector. The Quarknet outreach activities further foster collaboration with high school teachers, strengthening teaching and learning around the schools in Puerto Rico and motivating students to pursue STEM disciplines.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
This award enabled the High Energy Physics (HEP) group at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez (UPRM) to look for the evidence of Physics Beyond the Standard Model (BSM) by collecting and analyzing the data from the CMS detector at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. UPRM is currently the only HEP institution in the Caribbean’s on LHC experiments. Our group successfully participated in BSM physics analysis, detector operations, data processing, computing operations and R&D of Phase-2 Inner Tracker (IT) Upgrade of CMS detector for the HL-LHC. Several Physics and Engineering undergrads, and Physics Master students got exposure to the discovery science and related technology and went on to pursue PhD programs in Physics. Based on this work our students continue to obtain their Master theses. The recent discoveries at the LHC and the excitement of the particle physics to unravel the mysteries of the universe has been a vital factor to uplift the scientific mood of local community and students on the island that has recently seen a spate of natural disasters in the form of hurricane and earthquake. Our outreach activities on particle science with colliders and related software have been a big draw for STEM teachers and high school students.
The intellectual pursuit was to look for signatures of Supersymmetry (SUSY) particles. SUSY is an extension of the Standard Model (SM) that could help explain some of the shortcomings of SM, like the fine tuning (or hierarchy) problem and inability to explain the composition of Dark Matter, by introducing an additional symmetry between the fermions and the bosons. SUSY predicts a supersymmetric partner particle for each SM particle. The quantum numbers for each partner particle are the same as the quantum numbers for the corresponding SM particle except for the spin, which differs by a half-integer unit. The partner particles of quarks, gluons, and Higgs bosons are called squarks, gluinos and Higgsinos, respectively. The neutral and charged Higgsinos mix with the partner particles of the neutral and charged electroweak gauge bosons to form neutralinos and charginos. Our multi-institutional analysis searched for the partner particle of the top quark called the top squark. The data for this analysis corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 137 inverse femtobarns were collected with the CMS detector during Run 2 at the CERN LHC at a center-of mass energy of 13 TeV. The search utilized novel algorithms based on deep neural networks. We observed no statistically significant excess of events relative to the expectation from the SM. The results represent a significant improvement over the results of previous searches for SUSY by CMS in the same final state.
Another intellectual pursuit and accomplishment during this period has been a series of test beam activities to characterize the silicon planar and 3D sensors at Fermilab Test Beam Facility for the Phase-2 IT upgrade. The IT will read out two billion pixel channels during HL-LHC run of CMS detector. It will provide 3D space information around the proton-proton collision vertex on the order of a few micrometers in a very hostile radiation and a high pileup environment and holds the key in identifying rare processes that might reveal physics beyond the SM.
The award facilitated the UPRM HEP group to not only continue to contribute to the CMS science as mentioned above but also carry out a very strong outreach program mentoring high school teachers and preparing students for STEM careers. Several outreach activities hosted locally at UPRM, public lectures in community and software and data analysis workshops created an excitement about the importance of fundamental research and the technology it uses. The training of local high school students in software programming gave exposure to techniques in data analysis required to efficiently identify patterns and hidden signatures in the big data.
In summary, this project significantly contributed to our understanding of the nature of the universe at the smallest scales, its basic symmetries and search for signatures of physics beyond the SM. A strong R&D program is in full swing to build a robust IT for CMS detector for the HL-LHC run. The outreach activities exposed students from Puerto Rico to the discovery science, causing excitement and realization of the importance to explore career opportunities in STEM disciplines which are essential to continue to build a scientific workforce in our country.
Last Modified: 12/30/2021
Modified by: Sudhir Malik
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