My Research

I am about half-way through my PhD in the EPP Group at the University of Melbourne, School of Physics. My work is divided between hardware and analysis.

I'm involved in the precision construction of SCT (Semi-Conductor Tracker) modules for the ATLAS detector. The Melbourne group will be constructing 100+ outer, forward modules for one wheel. We've approached the construction in a very different way to most groups, choosing to position the spine vertically, rather than horizontally, and gluing all 4 silicon wafers at the one time. The wafers must be aligned to 2µm accuracy to reduce the offline analysis required. More info about the work done on this can be found in the talk I gave to AusHEP in December 2002 and my Confirmation Report, both on my Completed Work page.

Melbourne took it's first module to TestBeam September 2003. TestBeam is an opportunity to test sets of modules under (as close as possible) beam conditions. I participated in TestBeam in 2002 and 2003. A report of the Testbeam outcomes from 2002 is on my Completed Work page. I will be analysing the Melbourne modules's testbeam data.

In addition to this analysis, I will be simulating the production and decay of tau leptons in the ATLAS detector. This will help determine the detector resolution for tau decays. The tau lepton is a charged particle, similar to an electron or muon, but heavier. The decays I will be studying are the lepton flavour number violating (LFNV) decays, τ → μ γ and τ → e γ. These decays are not allowed in the Standard Model.
I had previously been looking at LFNV in the B meson system (e.g. B → μ τ) In this system even the non-violating decays B → μ μ are highly suppressed. An explanation of how this suppression applies was given in my GOSS talk in 2003.