ATLAS Physics Group
ATLAS is one of the four large detectors at the
proton-proton collider LHC (Large Hadron Collider) at the Centre of
European Particle Physics CERN (Conseil Européen pour la Recherche
Nucléaire). The initial LHC run in the years 2010-2012 brought a variety
of new physics results, culminating in the observation of the Higgs
boson in 2012. The LHC has begun to touch an energy regime probed never
before in an accelerator. Among the main physics goals of ATLAS are the
investigation of the Higgs boson, the search for Supersymmetry and other
new phenomena beyond the standard model of particle physics (e.g. large
extra dimensions), physics of the top quark, of B hadrons and of weak
gauge bosons, as well as tests of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) at high
energies.
Our group is active in many of these areas, analyzing the reactions that occur at the LHC and improving reconstruction and analysis methods to match the rapid increase in size of the available data set. We also share responsibility for operating and monitoring the data quality in particular of the ATLAS Pixel Detector, which operates at a distance of only 5cm to the interaction point, as well as future upgrades of this detector, such as a new innermost layer of the pixel detector at 3.5cm which was installed in 2014.
