Experimental Particle Physics with Electronic Detectors

The focus of the Penn State University particle physics group is three fold: completion and analysis activities of the ZEUS experiment at HERA at DESY; developmental work for the TOTEM experiment at the LHC at CERN; and participation in a Cosmic Ray muon study in collaboration with the ALICE experiment at CERN. The ZEUS experiment at DESY is a study of electron/positron-proton deep inelastic scattering (DIS) at a center-of-mass energy of 318 GeV to investigate the constituent structure of matter. Its primary aims are to study DIS at the highest exchanged photon virtualities, to probe electron and quark substructure down to distances of 10-18 cm, and to search for new families of excited leptons and quarks, in the 0.1-1 TeV mass range, indicative of physics beyond the Standard Model. During this next three-year grant period, HERA will provide high luminosity and lepton beam polarization. By mid 2007, the HERA-II program will cease operations, and the PSU group will transition to the TOTEM experiment at the LHC. For TOTEM, the group will conduct R&D on readout and trigger generation. TOTEM will investigate very forward particle production in high-energy proton-proton collisions. The goal of third (cosmic ray) project is to study high multiplicity muon bundles which might signify high-energy effects in primary cosmic ray interactions that are not included in current Monte Carlo programs that are simulating ultra high-energy cosmic rays. Broader impacts of the program, coordinated through Penn State University and the Pennsylvania Space Grant Consortium, include an annual series of summer Science Workshops for Educators, aimed at secondary school teachers.