SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY
Grant: $3,130,000 - National Science Foundation - Jul. 31, 2009
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Award Description: This award provides continuing support for a program of research for the High Energy Physics group at Syracuse University. The Syracuse HEP group is the only U.S. group on LHCb - an experiment at the LHC designed as the first to study b and c decays at a hadron collider, Its participation in LHCb has been concentrated in the Vertex Locator, Trigger, Ring Imaging Cherenkov detector, detector alignment, and physics simulation areas. The experiment will collect much larger samples of b-flavored hadrons in one year, in most channels, than have already been gathered in all other experiments. These samples could be crucial in pinpointing new physics and, at least, will set a lower mass scale to which new physics might contribute to flavor transitions. The Syracuse group is preparing an upgrade called Super-LHCb to match in time the plans for the upgrade of the LHC itself, called Super-LHC. Its participation is focused on new technology for the upgraded vertex detector and associated trigger strategies. It also participate in RD50, an R&D collaboration aimed towards highly radiation resistant semiconductor detectors up to levels expected from Super-LHC.
Project Description: The main objective of this award is to examine the properties of particles containing b-quarks and c-quarks. These studies are directed towards searches for the effects of massive unknown particles. To meet these goals we work on two experiments, the CLEO experiment at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY and the LHCb experiment at CERN in Geneva, SW. The project has started. Manpower expenditures are consistent with a profile that finishes at the end of the grant period. The CLEO experiment is it its final phase after a 30 year existence. Final results from our groups efforts have resulted in two papers accepted for publication in the Physical Review within last three months, and one preliminary paper that is being discussed in the collaboration before being prepared for publication. We joined the LHCb experiment five years ago. Data taking is expected to start at the end of November, 2009. Our tasks include operation and maintenance of the part of the detector called the Vertex Locator (VELO), preparation for and execution of data analyses, and planning for a large upgrade of the experiment.
Jobs Summary: 1) Award financial transactions are accessed through a unique 'Chartstring' which allows for the management and monitoring of expenditures in the University's PeopleSoft financial system. The University assigned a specific activity code to identify and segregate all ARRA award expenditures. 2)Labor charges, by individual employee, posted to ARRA chartstrings were selected. (Period: award start date through 9/30/09.) 3) FTE per employee was calculated from the proportion of 'Total ARRA Charges' (ARRA pay /pay period) to 'Total Pay Amount' (total pay per pay period). This value was multiplied by the employee's job record FTE to derive a 'Calculated FTE'. 4) The ARRA FTE reported is the sum of the award's Calculated FTEs. Posititions: Academic Faculty Research Faculty Postdocs Grad Res Asst Students Other (Total jobs reported: 11)
Project Status: Less Than 50% Completed
This award's data was last updated on Jul. 31, 2009. Help expand these official descriptions using the wiki below.
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