High Energy Physics – Experimental Research
Website: Particle Physics
High Energy physics studies the properties and interactions of fundamental particles in nature to understand the fundamental physics and evolution of the Universe. These studies strongly overlap with Astrophysics and Cosmology.
The HEP groups at Purdue are internationally recognized for their excellence. The groups are engaged in experiments at the high energy and short distance frontiers in experiments such as CDF at Fermilab and CLEO/CLEO-C at Cornell and preparations for the next generation experiment, CMS, at the Large Hadron Collider. These experiments involve probing the properties of heavy quarks and leptons and the search for new phenomena.
Our facilities, which include clean rooms for the development and fabrication of microstructure silicon and gas detectors, are among the best in the nation. The blend of sophisticated design and fabrication of detectors, together with the analysis of frontier physics provide an ideal education for students.
We are exploring the frontier of particle physics by studying the unification of the forces and the origin of mass through the search for the Higgs boson, supersymmetric particles and extra dimensions. Our work is also focused on the connection with cosmology through our study of CP violation in the B-system and the role that CP violation has in the matter anti-matter asymmetry of the universe.
We believe that the next decade will provide new discoveries which will revolutionize our understanding of the Universe. The Large Hadron Collider being built at CERN will open a new energy frontier in 2007 with great discovery potential. It is designed to discover the Higgs, the particle currently believed to be responsible for the origin of mass, and to shed light on the mechanisms necessary for grand unification such as super symmetry. Subsequently a next generation linear collider will provide the precision measurements of the Higgs and a definitive understanding of the electroweak symmetry breaking physics. In addition we expect to participate in new experiments at the interface of elementary particle physics and astrophysics using particle physics techniques to answer fundamental cosmological questions.
It is clear that HEP is, and will be, an exciting and vibrant field full of discovery in the next two decades and beyond, and that the Purdue Group will continue to be at the forefront.
Faculty Specializing in Experimental High Energy Physics
Experimental
Virgil Barnes
Laszlo Gutay
Matthew Jones
Andreas Jung
Rafael Lang
David Miller
Norbert Neumeister
John Peterson
Theoretical
Thomas Clark
Ephraim Fischbach
Sergei Khlebnikov
Martin Kruczenski
Sherwin Love
Research Groups