Identifying strange particles & determining their properties in the ATLAS experiment People

Particles in ATLAS In a particle collision in ATLAS, a large number of particles are produced. Which are they, and how are they constructed?

Many are constructed of quarks and antiquarks

Quarks make up the Hadrons Baryons - made up of 3 quarks eg protons & neutrons Mesons - made up of 2 quarks eg pions & kaons

There are also leptons ……Which also have their antiparticles but no sub structure – they are elementary

Force carriers The forces that particles experience arise from exchange of force carriers -  photons for electromagnetic forces - g gluons for the strong force between quarks - W & Z for the weak force which explains things like  decay & nuclear reactions in stars

What evidence do we have for this? Physicists have designed and carried out experiments with: - Cosmic rays –Particle accelerated in particle laboratories Using more and more sophisticated particle detectors

The bubble chamber has been a very useful detector to visualise particle collisions and particle decays. A charged particle passing through the (superheated) liquid causes the liquid to boil along their paths. A magnetic field causes the particles to bend.

9 Classical bubble chamber image The observation of a short-lived neutral kaon in a bubble chamber

Modern detectors are very complex and rely on advanced electronics & computer technology ½% of the ATLAS members

Detecting particles Which particles can we detect – are there any we can’t ? How do we find their - charge - momentum - energy ? What characteristics do we look for to identify which particle it is?

What are the principles used? Ionisation of a medium to show the paths of charged particles Magnetic fields to exert forces on charged particles and so bend their paths – to identify charge and enable momentum to be calculated Absorbing materials to stop particles and so enable energy to be calculated

Detector homework GOALS: To learn more about detectors and the characteristics of particle paths in them To make some observations and measurements

PREPARATION Explore the physics of the ATLAS detector at: -Click on “multimedia” and then “how atlas works” and “animated clips” -Particularly Episode2: nc/feature_episode2.html -Construction of ATLAS in 3 minutes: nc/built_in_three_minutes.html nc/built_in_three_minutes.html -Click on “e-tours” and look at these too. -Study “Physics with ATLAS” report on the Learning with ATLAS portal.

Download the Minerva software at minerva Read through the introduction and, using the Minerva help and instructions pdf, work through the 5 tutorial examples.

Student feed back Which particles can we detect? Which characteristics do we look for? How are the particles detected?

Which particles can we detect – are there any we can’t ? Most particles can be detected by various sections of a modern detector Neutrinos have no charge and very little mass and rarely interact with matter – we detect their presence only by noting “missing” energy & momentum in collisions Typical detector parts

What characteristics do we look for in the particle tracks to identify which particle it is? Charged particles, like electrons & positrons, leave tracks in the tracking chamber (where magnetic fields are also applied to enable momentum measurement) and deposit all of their energy in the electromagnetic calorimeter, where it can be measured. Neutral particles, like a photon, can deposit energy in the electromagnetic calorimeter, but leave no track in the tracking chamber

……………. Charged particles, consisting of quarks, like protons, leave tracks in the tracking chamber (where a magnetic field is also applied to enable momentum measurement) and deposit their energy in the hadronic calorimeter, where it can be measured. Neutral particles, consisting of quarks, like neutrons, also deposit energy in the hadronic calorimeter, but leave no track in the tracking chamber Muons pass through all the detector layers, leaving tracks, and depositing very small amounts of energy in all calorimeters. In the muon spectrometer, a large magnetic field is applied which enables momentum measurement.

Interactions of particles with the detectors - Summary e+e+ leaves no track at all

The particle trajectory and charge Tracking devices reveal the paths of electrically charged particles through the trails they leave behind. When particles pass through the detector material, they ionise the atoms of the material. The ionised atoms give rise to a feeble electric current. Most modern tracking devices produce tiny electrical signals that can be recorded as computer data. A computer program then reconstructs the patterns of tracks recorded by the detector, and displays them on a screen. The charge on a particle is determined by the curvature of its path in a magnetic field

Motion of charged particle in magnetic fields The direction of the force on the particle is determined by Fleming’s Left hand Rule: The current direction is the direction in which a POSITIVE charge is travelling. For a negative charge, this direction is reversed, which reverses the force direction

This force provides a centripetal force from which we can deduce particle momentum F = Bqv F = mv 2 / r ➱ mv 2 / r = Bqv and momentum P = mv = Bqr Hence a particle’s momentum can be calculated from the radius of curvature of its

How do we find the particle - energy? A calorimeter measures the energy lost by a particle that goes through it. It is usually designed to entirely ‘absorb’ all of the particles coming from a collision, forcing them to deposit all of their energy within the detector. Calorimeters typically consist of layers of ‘absorbing’ high–density material (lead or steel) interleaved with layers of ‘active’ medium such as a scintillator..

Electromagnetic calorimeters measure the energy of electrons and photons as they interact with the electrically charged particles inside matter. Hadronic calorimeters sample the energy of hadrons (particles containing quarks, such as protons and neutrons) as they interact with atomic nuclei High energy e - e-e-  e-e- e+e+ p High energy p p The high energy e- interacts with the absorbing material, producing a shower of a large number of low energy e-, e+, . The numerous low energy particles passes into the active material, ionising atoms. The created e- are attracted towards copper electrodes, where the charge is measured. From this, the original energy of the high energy e- can be calculated The high energy p interacts with an atomic nucleus in the absorbing plates, leading to a shower of particles. These particles enter a scintillating material, causing it to radiate light. Long fibres carry the light to devices where the intensity is measured and converted to an electric current, from which the energy of the incoming proton is measured.

Gather evidence from observation A K 0 particle produced in a proton-proton collision, and decaying in the Inner Detector of ATLAS

27 K 0 particle features Features to determine –The mass –The lifetime –Its decay

Working in groups On the Minerva website click on masterclass resources and scroll down to computer set up. Choose a suitable version (depending on class size) and download the sets of events – click save, then right click on saved file and extract all (from the zip file) The K 0 event files are not yet uploaded. As the ATLAS data taking just started, and the K 0 data are very new and interesting to the particle physics community, the ATLAS management has not yet approved their use outside the ATLAS collaboration. However, this approval is expected rather soon. Locate the file atlantis.jar inside the AtlantisJavaMinerva folder. Double click this file and MINERVA will begin, as long as you have a recent version of Java installed, version 1.5 or later. If you need Java installing please go to and download the software from the website. The default events are events which are shown in the introductory slides. To display the events of a given group, go to File (upper left corner of the right panel), then click on Read Events Locally, select the minerva file from where you have saved it, select the events folder and then the group you want to display, and click Open.

……. Print off the Instructions for Atlantis, Summary sheet and Overview sheet in the paperwork section on this page. Each group takes a sample of 20 events from the Minerva web site and identifies the events within this set that possibly show the decay of a K 0 particle For each such event, calculate the invariant mass of the K 0 particle and determine its lifetime

30 Special relativity High energies, several GeV per particle High speed, close to c, speed of light Need to use Special relativity –Albert Einstein 1905 –Important contributions from Hendrik Lorentz and Henri Poincaré

What is invariant mass?? The invariant mass, is a characteristic of the total energy and momentum of a system of objects. It is the same in all frames of reference – it is invariant. The invariant mass is the mass of the decaying particle.

In general….. using SI units… E 2 = p 2 c 2 + m 2 c 4 where m is the invariant mass or just mass. Energy and momentum must be conserved when the K 0 particle decays into a  + and a  -. Then : E = E  + E  and p = p  + p  remembering that p is a vector quantity! Then m K can be calculated: m 2 = E 2 - p 2 c 2 c 4

Units Particle physicists work with less familiar units that simplify the equation: E 2 = p 2 + m 2 E is measured in GeV P is measured in GeV/c (often just called GeV in the software) m is measured in Gev/c 2 1 eV = energy gained by charged particle accelerated through a voltage of 1V 1 eV = 1.6 x J 1 GeV = 10 9 eV 1 TeV = eV

Using these units… m 2 = E 2 - p 2 E is measured in GeV & m comes out in in Gev/c 2 when p is measured in GeV/c

E 2 = p 2 + m 2 For the high energy pions, the momentum is large compared to the mass m << p The mass term can often be disregarded, and we can approximate that E = p for each of the pions

Once you have identified a K 0  + +  -  event… Click on “pick” at the top of the GUI box of the software, then click on the two pion tracks one after the other The three components of the momentum will be displayed. Calculate the invariant mass of the original K0 particle in each case: m K = [ (E  + + E     p x  + + p x  ) 2 -  p y  + + p y  ) 2  p z  + + p z  ) 2 ] 1/2 An excel spread sheet could be designed to do this

37 Estimating the K 0 mass Explore the K 0 events, and determine the mass from the momenta of the two pions. Repeat it for each K 0 particle Make a histogram of the measured values, and determine the average mass of the K 0. Estimate the uncertainty.

38 The lifetime Most particles are unstable. How long they live depends also on their speed relative to the observer, that is us. The lifetime we observe is the particle lifetime at rest multiplied with the gamma factor (also called the Lorentz factor) The gamma factor,  = 1/(1-v 2 /c 2 ) 1/2 The gamma (or Lorentz) factor shows up ”everywhere” in special relativity.

39 Estimating the lifetime Explore the K 0 events, and determine the decay distance, the distance from the collision point to the decay point. Determine the speed of the K 0 particle It is often rather close to c, the speed of light. Determine the lifetime of each K 0 particle, divided by the gamma factor Make a histogram of the measured values, and determine the lifetime of the K 0.

Collating and discussing results Groups come back together and tabulate values of mass and lifetimes calculated for the K 0 particles A histogram of frequency against mass is plotted Discussion of whether the K 0 is positively identified and to what accuracy

Discussion of measurement technique The K 0 particle decay can be “seen” in the detector The decay of very shortlived particles can not be seen in the detector Can the same technique still be used? Which complications could there be to use the technique for “invisible”, very shortlived particles?

42 Discussion of the results What is your best estimate of the mass of the K 0 particle? What could the uncertainty be due to? What is your best estimate of the lifetime of the K 0 particle? Discuss ways to determine the lifetime more correctly and more precisely. What could the uncertainty be due to? How far would the K 0 particle typically move if the gamma factor is 1?

K 0 particle and antiparticle The K 0 particle and the K 0 antiparticle are different particles –The K 0 is composed of an s quark and a u quark –The K 0 (the anti K 0 ) is composed of an s quark and an u quark –The K 0 and the K 0 are different particles as they are composed of different quarks 43

44 Lifetime reconstruction