Centre nodes Monash node School of physics and astronomy Clayton Campus Monash University VIC 3800 T +61 3 9902 0328 E Sydney node School of physics, Building A28 Camperdown Campus The University of Sydney NSW 2006 T +61 2 9351 2539 E [email protected] Adelaide node 1st floor, Physics Building North Terrace Campus The University of Adelaide SA 5005 T +61 8 8313 3533 E [email protected] Melbourne node David Caro Building (Bld 192) Parkville Campus The Unviersity of Melbourne VIC 3010 T +61 3 9035 3873 E [email protected] Partner institutions CONTENTS CONTENTS 85 DEVELOPMENT 2 Acronyms and abbreviations 85 CoEPP Annual Scientific Workshop 5 ABOUT 88 Spring school on particle 5 About CoEPP physics and cosmology 6 Director’s report 90 Awards and recognition 8 Chair’s report 93 OUTREACH AND ENGAGEMENT 9 Report from the International Advisory Committee 93 High schools program 10 Structure and governance 94 International particle physics masterclass 15 PERSONNEL 96 Collision 15 Chief investigators 97 TEDxCERN@Monash and 16 Additional academic staff virtual visit to CMS 17 Honorary fellows and 98 Particle Fever showings at associates National Science Week 18 Partner investigators 99 Global Physics Photowalk 19 Postdoctoral researchers 101 PUBLICATIONS 22 Professional staff 101 Refereed journal articles 24 Students 104 ATLAS Collaboration 37 RESEARCH 110 Belle Collaboration 37 Overview 111 CDF Collaboration 38 Higgs program 111 Refereed conference proceedings 42 Higgs physics theory 113 Conference presentations 44 Searching for the origin of neutrino masses 116 CoEPP annual scientific workshop 46 Precision tests of the Standard Model 119 PERFORMANCE 50 Dark matter 119 Awards 54 Searching for supersymmetry 121 Centre-recognised leadership 57 Searching for exotic mesons at 124 Media activities ATLAS 128 Key performance indicators 59 Running and upgrading the experiment 130 Financial report 60 Research computing 131 Financial summary 64 Collaborations 134 Detailed activity plan 79 Research facilities 137 Case studies 82 Associated activities ARC CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE FOR PARTICLE PHYSICS AT THE TERASCALE Acronyms and abbreviations AIDA an inclusive dilepton analysis ATLAS A Toroidal LHC ApparatuS BSM beyond the Standard Model CERN European Council for Nuclear Research CMS Compact Muon Solenoid CoEPP ARC Centre of Excellence for Particle Physics at the Terascale fb femtobarn FTK Fast Track Trigger GeV giga electron volt HEP high-energy physics INFN Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare KEK High Energy Accelerator Research Organization LHC Large Hadron Collider MSSM Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model NMSSM Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model QCD quantum chromodynamics RC research computing SABRE sodium-iodide with active background rejection SM Standard Model of particle physics SUPL Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory SUSY supersymmetry SVD silicon vertex detectors Te V tera electron volt WLCG Worldwide LHC Computing Grid 2 ANNUAL REPORT 3 ANNUAL REPORT ABOUT About CoEPP ABOUT The ARC Centre of Excellence for Particle Physics at the Terascale (CoEPP) is a collaborative research venture between the universities of Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney and Monash. CoEPP fosters links between experimental and theoretical particle physics, further Mission links Australian research to significant • To enable young Australian scientists international research centres, establishes direct access to this most exciting strong Australian grid and cloud computing field of endeavour on a footing where expertise, and further develops accelerator they will be competitive with their technologies in Australia. international peers. • To inspire a new generation of young Vision Australians to pursue careers in science and technology. The Centre will exploit a once-in-a- • To lead Australia in the field of high- generation opportunity for fundamental energy physics research and to scientific research in Australia through establish national awareness, pride its involvement with the Large Hadron and longevity in this field through Collider at CERN. This includes the international collaboration, excellence prospect of understanding the origin in research training, and opportunity of mass, discovering new physical laws, for engagement. recreating and investigating matter under conditions that have not existed since the big bang, and producing and studying dark matter in the laboratory. The Centre will lead the nation in pursuing knowledge of the fundamental laws of particle physics, through a deepening engagement in the international field of high-energy particle physics. 5 ARC CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE FOR PARTICLE PHYSICS AT THE TERASCALE Director’s report 2015 was a big year for particle physics, particularly with the Large Hadron Collider restarting mid-year after a 2-year hiatus ABOUT for essential upgrades. The new collision energy of 13 TeV has already seen some tantalising hints of new physics around the 750 GeV mass, and, although this may simply disappear, it offers an important target for both ATLAS and CMS in 2016. Professor With the Higgs boson discovered and searches, sees partnership with Geneva Geoffrey Taylor the LHC running at 13 TeV, the focus has and Milano. The Sydney node and partner shifted to measuring Higgs properties. institute Duke University have forged Centre Director Measurement of Higgs properties tests the ahead in the development of the AIDA Standard Model further and any deviation (an inclusive dilepton analysis) approach, from predictions can give rise to Standard with a focus on top-quark studies in 2015. Model extensions or, indeed, completely All nodes are involved in SUSY searches new physics. CoEPP has a solid reputation or interpretations in a variety of channels. in many Higgs analyses, but particularly in The Fast Track Trigger (FTK) Project the Higgs decaying to a pair of tau leptons is an ongoing effort with Melbourne, and the Higgs to WW channel. Milano and Geneva – all members of the FTK Collaboration. Activities in CoEPP has forged a worldwide reputation Melbourne included development of for innovation through its theory– monitoring software for the Associative experiment collaboration across all Memory Boards. its nodes. The Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory (SUPL) has become a Collaboration is strong both significant project with the award of a $1.18 million, 5-year, Australian Research nationally and internationally Council Linkage Project grant that includes the Stawell Gold Mine owners (the through deep connections Australian Nuclear Science and Technology with our partner institutes, Organisation [ANSTO] and the Australian National University [ANU]), and Melbourne and great new partnerships and Adelaide universities. SUPL has also received State and Federal support of have been developed through $1.75 million from each for construction of the associated activities the laboratory. of the Centre. The direct dark matter experiment, SABRE, to be housed at SUPL, is forging ahead via Extensive theoretical work has been seen a collaboration between CoEPP members in the area of supersymmetry (SUSY) – led by Elisabetta Barberio – the Princeton searches, with strong collaboration across group and Gran Sasso. all Centre nodes and partner institutes Centre researchers were recognised Cambridge and Freiburg. Exotics searches, throughout the year with prestigious including resonance searches, Mono-X, awards. Most notably, Dr Phillip Urquijo doubly charged Higgs and monopole received the 2015 3M Eureka Prize 6 ANNUAL REPORT ABOUT for Emerging Leader in Science. The of the film, Particle Fever for National highly prestigious Eureka Prizes reward Science Week and participated for the outstanding achievements in science; very first time in the Global Particle Physics Phillip’s win is testament to his rapid rise in Photowalk run by the global particle the competitive world of particle physics. physics communications group Interactions Dr Martin White was a finalist in the SA Collaboration. In the latter, Mark Killmer Science Excellence Awards ‘Tall Poppy of was second in the Jury Category and the Year’ category. The Tall Poppy award Molly Patton won the Peoples’ Choice recognises excellence in early career Category, both with photos taken in the research across all the sciences. Finally, Stawell Gold Mine. Research Computing team member Sean In closing, I should mention the huge Crosby received an Endeavour Executive effort spent during the year to produce Fellowship to work with the cloud the Expression of Interest and, after being computing team at CERN. selected as 1 of 20 out of more than Research computing at CoEPP represents 120 submissions, the full proposal for the Australia’s contribution to the large- next round of ARC Centres of Excellence, scale computing requirements needed for funding from 2017. If the successes to by CoEPP’s international collaborations date and the massive change that CoEPP and local researchers to undertake has brought about for high-energy physics their work. Significant infrastructure in Australia are any indication, we can improvements were implemented in 2015, expect to be judged very positively in our including growing the CoEPP grid site by goal of securing a second funding period 50 terabytes and replacing 320 terabytes for an internationally competitive national of current storage through a large gift of high-energy physics program. equipment, still in warranty but excess to requirements, from the Victorian Life Sciences Computing Initiative. The CoEPP outreach