Task P: Experimental Particle Physics (Final Report)

Abstract

The UCSD Elementary Particle Physics group investigates physics at the High Energy Frontier by working exclusively on the CMS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. The goal of all four PIs is to discover new facets of the as-yet unwritten laws of nature as a new high-energy regime is opened at the LHC. To that end, we are primarily working on the search for the Higgs boson(s), on the search for supersymmetry, and the search for other new particles and interactions. Further, our goal is to have a very significant intellectual impact on the experiment, as we have in the past. We have played a leading role in the Higgs search in the past and particularly in the observation of a new boson that is consistent with a Higgs-like particle. All four PIs are very involved in the Higgs search. Vivek Sharma was the CMS Higgs co-coordinator during 2010-11. One of our key goals is to measure the properties of this particle as accurately as possible during the upcoming proposal period. The most important modes for this measurement are H 0 → γγ, H 0 → ZZ, and H 0 → WW. We have played leading roles in the measurement of these channels up to now and our goal is to continue work in these channels, measuring the production modes of the “Higgs”, the spin and parity, and the decay branching fractions.