Cornell University LEPP

• Activities
• Physics
• Opportunities

CMS at Cornell

Cornell is a member of the CMS collaboration. CMS is one of two large detectors being built at the LHC at the CERN particle physics lab in Geneva, Switzerland. (Want to join us?)

Experimental Activities

Cornell is currently involved in the following areas of the CMS experiment.

Pixel Calibration

CMS's pixel detector has more than 60 million channels. We are involved in calibrating this detector and writing DAQ software for managing the application of the calibration constants during running.

Core Software

CMS started a rewrite of its core software in 2005. Cornell has been heavily involved in the design and implentation of the new framework, called CMS SW. We are also collaborating with the Cornell Theory Center to build a toolset to allow CMS scientists to better develop analyses that deal with large data sets.

Tracking

The Cornell group is involved in understanding how to use the large silicon tracker to measure the passage of charged particles through the detector.

EM Calorimeter

Cornell has a long history with CsI calorimeters in CLEO. We will carry this experience to the LHC in helping calibrate and align the CMS CsI EM calorimeter.

Physics Challenges

In addition to these projects, we are involved in physics studies for what we can do with the first data coming out of the LHC, including the engineering run in 2007 and the first physics runs in 2008. Among the topics we are interested in is "Beyond the Standard Model" physics such as Supersymmetry, extra dimension and the mystery of dark matter. CMS will also be a great place to study the top quark in great detail (which some of us are already doing at CDF at Fermilab) and looking for Higgs bosons, in either a Standard Model flavor or whatever new Higgs Nature throws at us.

Opportunities

We are looking for students and post-docs to join our group. Please contact one of us if you are interested.