Ph.D XXXIX

Supervisor: Marina Cobal

Phone: 

Room: Rizzi L2-12-BC

Mail: ricci.bernardo@spes.uniud.it

Research Project

Dark sector searches with the ATLAS detector

Building a theory that can correctly describe the laws that govern the Universe at an infinitely small scale is the final goal of Particle Physics. All known fundamental particle interactions have been described so far by the Standard Model. However, there are other phenomena that play a crucial role in the dynamics of the Universe that the Standard Model of Particle Physics cannot account for, such as the existence of the Dark Matter. The ATLAS collaboration at CERN is pursuing a complementary strategy at the LHC, searching for unusual decays of the Higgs boson, which is thought to be interacting with the so-called Dark Sector, a new hidden sector of particles governed by unknown interactions.

The research activity will be conducted in the context of data analysis of the ATLAS experiment. The main goal will be the search of Dark Sectors and its particles generated in proton-proton collisions at the LHC. Support activities for the ATLAS collaboration will be conducted, specifically in the context of the Monte Carlo simulation. Part of the research activity will be conducted outside the ATLAS collaboration, for feasibility studies of search of Dark Sectors and its particles in high-energy experiments at future particle accelerators.