In 2014, a group of scientists from NSU filed an application to participate in the LHC experiment as part of the CMS (Compact Muon Solenoid) collaboration. They were accepted at the beginning of 2015. Since then, a group of NSU professors and students have been participating in the experiment. The CMS collaboration involves 4,000 physicists and engineers from approximately 200 institutes from more than 40 countries.
The LHC is 27 kilometers long and is the largest and most powerful accelerator in the world. It accelerates protons almost to the speed of light in opposite directions and then collides them at four meeting places in the ring. When protons collide, their energy turns into a large number of generated particles flying in all directions. The CMS, which weighs 14,000 tons, is located in one of four venues and acts as a high-speed camera that takes 3D photos of events up to 40 million times per second. By registering particles born in the event, the detector recovers the collision event for further analysis.
The CMS collaboration has an extensive physics program that includes studying the Standard Model, the recently discovered Higgs boson, the search for new particles and interactions, and the study of collisions of heavy ions.
The NSU group is currently involved in an analysis of the search for the birth of two Higgs bosons. In addition they are working on laser calibration of an electromagnetic calorimeter, R&D backend electronics, and the development of DAQ for the new MTD system (MIP Timing Detector) in collaboration with a group from Saclay. One of the main detector systems is an electromagnetic crystalline calorimeter. The calorimeter consists of lead tungstate crystals whose transparency changes due to radiation exposure associated with the operation of the collider. To monitor changes in the transparency of crystals in the detector, there is a laser calibration system that measures this value continuously. The NSU group is responsible for the online monitoring of crystal transparency and the preparation of transparency measurement data for event reconstruction.
In May 2019, a workshop on the electromagnetic calorimeter was held in Zurich. The meeting was devoted primarily to the results of the calorimeter in RUN2 (experiment with a total beam energy of 13 TeV in 2016鈥�2018) and the work to improve the calorimeter calibration to increase the accuracy of data processing, as well as the modernization of the calorimeter planned for 2024鈥�2026. One of the keynote speakers at this meeting was Tatyana Dimova, a Senior Researcher at the 吃瓜官网 Interdisciplinary Center for Elementary Particle Physics and Astrophysics Laboratory for Hadron Interaction Physics. In a short period of time, Dimova has become one of the experts in CMS laser calibration. She was responsible for the online monitoring and preparation of data on the evolution of crystal transparency that is being used in event reconstruction.
Currently, there are 10 people in the NSU scientific team that includes two students and one graduate student. The opportunity to participate in an experiment at this level is extremely important for professors and students involved in particle physics.
