Research Associate in Particle Physics.
The University of Edinburgh’s experimental particle physics group is seeking a research associate to work on experimental physics research in support of the construction and operation of the International Linear Collider.
The International Linear Collider (ILC) is proposed as the next electron-positron collider for high-energy physics. It will have a tuneable centre of mass energy ranging from 200 to 500 GeV, with further options to upgrade to 1TeV and to run around the Z-boson. The ILC will make precision measurements of the Higgs boson, supersymmetric particles and the top quark, and thus allowing deeper insights into the underlying theory of particle physics.
The experimental particle physics (PPE) group has recently joined the Linear Collider Flavour Identifier collaboration (LCFI), which is designing the next generation of column-parallel CCDs as a potential technology for the ILC vertex detector. LCFI are also contributing to physics studies for the ILC. Current work includes the development of vertex reconstruction software. Future physics studies will focus on channels which require precise vertex reconstruction, such as Higgs bosons decaying into pairs of bottom and charm quarks and into polarised tau-leptons. The PPE group also intends to work with one of the ILC proto-collaborations on studies of key physics channels with full detector effects simulated.
The main task of the position is to contribute to the LCFI programme. The position will also provide an opportunity to work with local particle physics phenomenologist and/or within one of the ILC detector proto-collaborations.
The position is to work with Dr Victoria Martin, to whom all informal enquires should be directed (victoria.martin@ed.ac.uk).
The appointment is funded through Marie Curie international relocation grant, part of the sixth framework programme of the EU. The initial appointment will be for two years, with the possibility of renewal thereafter. The position will be based at the University of Edinburgh.
Salary will be awarded on the University of Edinburgh grade 7 (£26402 - £31525).
Closing date: 31st January 2006.
The University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh is over 400 years old and is one of the largest in the UK. It is Scotland's premier research university and graded among the top British universities in the 2001 national Research Assessment Exercise. The University employs around 2500 academic and academic-related staff. It has a student population of around 20,000 and an annual research income of £105M. The University is organised into 22 Schools each belonging to one of three Colleges: the College of Science & Engineering, the College of Medicine & Veterinary Medicine, and the College of Humanities & Social Science. The University of Edinburgh is situated in the heart of one of the most attractive cities in the UK, which combines the architectural grandeur and cultural advantages of a capital city with unrivaled access to unspoilt countryside.
College of Science and Engineering
The College of Science & Engineering is one of the largest science and engineering groupings in the UK, with over 1,600 staff and over 6,500 students. In the 2001 research assessment exercise 94 % of its academic and research staff were in units of assessment rated 5 or 5*. The College consists of seven distinct academic units. These are the Schools of Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Geosciences, Engineering & Electronics, Informatics, Maths, and Physics. The majority of these Schools are located at the King's Buildings campus in south Edinburgh, approximately three miles from the city centre. The College is committed to high quality teaching across the range of science and engineering within the distinctive Scottish education pattern of the 4-year honours bachelors degrees and 5-year undergraduate masters.
School of Physics
The School of Physics brings together Physics and Astronomy, the Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre and the National e-Science Centre. We offer state of the art laboratories and world-leading, high performance computing technology to our staff and students. The School of Physics has about 65 academic staff, a similar number of technical staff, around 100 research students and 50 postdoctoral researchers. Edinburgh physics has a strong international research reputation and is Scotland's leading physics research department, both in size and quality, achieving grade 5 in the 2001 UK Research Assessment Exercise.
The particle physics experiment group consists of six academic faculty members (Philip Clark, Peter Clarke, Victoria Martin, Franz Muheim, Steve Playfer and Alan Walker), five research associates and seven postgraduate students. Steve Playfer leads the group. The group is supported by a rolling grant from the UK Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council. The PPE group has a long tradition of research in the areas of CP violation and B-meson physics. Our current activities include the BaBar and LHCb experiments, preparations for the International Linear Collider (ILC), and Grid computing. We are participating in data-taking and data analysis with the BaBar experiment at SLAC, where we have contributed substantially to results on semileptonic and rare B decays. In the LHCb experiment we are responsible for the photodetectors of the RICH detectors. LHCb is in the final construction phase and will begin data taking at CERN in 2007. As part of the GridPP collaboration we are designing and testing tools for use with high-energy physics applications. In collaboration with the Universities of Glasgow and Durham, we have established ScotGrid, a prototype Tier 2 centre in Scotland for the analysis of data from the LHC experiments. ILC physics is the group’s newest activity. We are currently working with the LCFI collaboration (hepwww.rl.ac.uk/lcfi) on physics and tracking studies for the vertex detector.