Final Technical Report for "High Energy Physics at The University of Iowa"
Particle Physics explores the very fundamental building blocks of our universe: the nature of forces, of space and time. By exploring very energetic collisions of sub-nuclear particles with sophisticated detectors at the colliding beam accelerators (as well as others), experimental particle physicists have established the current theory known as the Standard Model (SM), one of the several theoretical postulates to explain our everyday world. It explains all phenomena known up to a very small fraction of a second after the Big Bang to a high precision; the Higgs boson, discovered recently, was the last of the particle predicted by the SM. However, many other phenomena, like existence of dark energy, dark matter, absence of anti-matter, the parameters in the SM, neutrino masses etc. are not explained by the SM. So, in order to find out what lies beyond the SM, i.e., what conditions at the earliest fractions of the first second of the universe gave rise to the SM, we constructed the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN after the Tevatron collider at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. Each of these projects helped us push the boundary further with new insights as we explore a yet higher energy regime. The experiments are extremely complex, and as we push the boundaries of our existing knowledge, it also requires pushing the boundaries of our technical knowhow. So, not only do we pursue humankind’s most basic intellectual pursuit of knowledge, we help develop technology that benefits today’s highly technical society. Our trained Ph.D. students become experts at fast computing, manipulation of large data volumes and databases, developing cloud computing, fast electronics, advanced detector developments, and complex interfaces in several of these areas. Many of the Particle physics Ph.D.s build their careers at various technology and computing facilities, even financial institutions use some of their skills of simulation and statistical prowess. Additionally, last but not least, today’s discoveries make for tomorrow’s practical uses of an improved life style, case in point, internet technology, fiber optics, and many such things. At The University of Iowa we are involved in the LHC experiments, ATLAS and CMS, building equipment, with calibration and maintenance, supporting the infrastructure in hardware, software and analysis as well as participating in various aspects of data analyses. Our theory group works on fundamentals of field theories and on exploration of non-accelerator high energy neutrinos and possible dark matter searches.