Particle Physics in Birmingham

Particle Physics Seminar

Wednesday 23rd November 2022 at 13:30
SLT

(coffee served at 13:15)

FASER

Monica D'Onofrio (Liverpool University)


Abstract

FASER, or the Forward Search Experiment, is a new experiment at CERN designed to complement the LHC's ongoing physics programme, extending its discovery potential to light and weakly-interacting particles that may be produced copiously at the LHC in the far-forward region. New physics particles targeted by FASER, such as long-lived dark photons or dark scalars, are characterised by a signature with two oppositely-charged tracks or two photons with very high energy (TeV) that emanate from a common vertex inside the detector. A tracking-based technology, supplemented by a magnet and an electromagnetic calorimeter to allow for energy measurements are the key components of FASER. The main detector is also complemented by the FASERn emulsion detector dedicated to the study of neutrinos produced in LHC collisions via hadron decays. The full detector was successfully installed in TI12 in March 2021 and operations have started with the beginning of the Run 3. FASER is now taking data and has collected more than 25/fb on tape. The detector is fully functional and physics data analyses are in progress. An overview of the experiment, its physics goals and its current status will be given in this seminar.