USRA Summer 2012 Student Positions

with the ATLAS Toronto Group

The University of Toronto ATLAS group has several summer student positions open to USRA recipients in the summer of 2012. The group comprises seven faculty members: Bailey, Krieger, Orr, Savard, Sinervo, Teuscher (based at CERN) and Trischuk. Project topics and potential supervisors include:

• Physics Studies for ATLAS:
  Simulation of physics events in the ATLAS detector and development of data selection and analysis techniques for specific physics channels.
  Contact: savard@physics.utoronto.ca, pekka@physics.utoronto.ca, orr@physics.utoronto.ca, teuscher@physics.utoronto.ca

• ATLAS Beam Conditions Data analysis:
  Analysis of beam conditions data taken in 2011 and 2012 and their use to design and prepare an upgraded beam monitoring detector to be installed in 2012.
  Contact: william@physics.utoronto.ca

In 2012, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, in Geneva Switzerland, will continue operation with high-energy colliding beams, opening up an experimental window on physics at the TeV scale. While many models exist on the form of physics at the TeV energy scale, two of the topics that are being explored by experiments at the LHC are the existence of the Higgs Boson, and the existence of supersymmetry, a popular and elegant extension to the Standard Model that predicts the existence of new particles at these energy scales.

The ATLAS detector is one of two general-purpose detectors that have been designed and constructed for the purpose of recording the results of the high-energy proton-proton collisions produced by the LHC, and investigating physics at this new energy frontier. The ATLAS Canada group has made significant contributions to the detector design and construction. In Toronto, the group was involved in the construction of the Hadronic Forward Calorimeter, which was tested in particle beams at CERN, before being integrated into the ATLAS detector. The Toronto group is one of the leaders in a range of physics analyses and ATLAS detector performance studies.

We will also consider applications from students not holding a USRA award, but generally USRA recipients are given priority. There may be the opportunity for some of these students to spend at least part of the summer at CERN.

For more information, contact the people listed above for each position.