PhD studentship on frontier detectors and trigger/DAQ for future colliders (2021)

What you get

• Tuition fees for three and a half years at the UK student rate. Outstanding students not eligible for UK fees will be considered for a partial tuition waiver above that level.
• A tax-free bursary for living costs for three and a half years. From October 2021/22 this is expected to be £15560 per year.

Type of award

PhD Research

PhD project

The worldwide particle physics community is gearing up for the construction of a new electron-positron collider. This machine will give unprecedented precision for the measurement of crucial Standard Model parameters, particularly the Higgs boson, and have interesting prospects for the discovery of new physics phenomena. The challenges coming from a completely new e+ e- collider call for frontier detectors. The Sussex Collider group is part of a 4-year international EU network (AIDAInnova) and is leading the UK effort in two crucial areas of the R&D for future colliders: the development of a novel concept of calorimeter, which will allow measuring hadronic signals with high resolution; and the development of Trigger and Data Acquisition platforms for the R&D of novel detectors, including the monitoring of signals from different detector prototypes at test beams. 

 A funded studentship on the AIDAInnova project is available to work on these two aspects of the R&D for future colliders, under the joint supervision of Prof Fabrizio Salvatore and Prof Iacopo Vivarelli.

 The project for this studentship will focus on three main aspects: 

-   The development and test of the optical readout of a novel dual-readout calorimeter prototype, which will be extensively tested at beam tests at CERN (Geneva, Switzerland) and DESY (Hamburg, Germany) for the duration of the project;

-       The development of generic data acquisition software tools to be deployed on the calorimeter and generalised to other detectors tested on the beam lines during the R&D of detector prototypes; 

-  The development and application of particle flow techniques to simulated calorimeter data for the determination of calorimeter resolutions and general physics studies for future collider experiments.

 The ideal candidate would have some experience in C++ and python programming, and knowledge of particle interaction with matter.  The candidate will be ideally positioned to make a large impact in this sector, also through close contact with the other nodes of the network and with CERN- and DESY-based experts

Eligibility

• Open to students from the UK, EU and Overseas.
• If you are not a UK national, nor an EU national with settled/pre-settled status in the UK, you may need to apply for a student study visa before admission.

• You must hold, or expect to hold, a UK upper second-class degree (or non-UK equivalent) in Physics or a closely-related area, or else a lower second-class degree followed by a relevant Master's degree

We also welcome applications from independently-funded students interested in our experimental programme.

Deadline

30 March 2021 11:00

How to apply

Apply online at https://www.sussex.ac.uk/study/phd/apply/log-into-account

Select the PhD in Physics with a September 2021 start date.

State in the Finance & Funding section of the online form that you are applying for the EU AIDAInnova studentship no. EU/EPP/2020/07

To be considered for more than one of our EPP positions, include the studentship number(s) from our other advertisements in the Finance & Funding section.

 Be sure to supply all of the required documents, particularly your transcripts and the details of two referees.

Due to the high volume of applications received, you may only hear from us if your application is successful.

Contact us

If you have practical questions about the progress of your applications or your eligibility, contact Emma Ransley at mps-pgrsupport@sussex.ac.uk

For academic questions contact the coordinator of EPP PhD admissions, Dr. W. Clark Griffith: W.C.Griffith@sussex.ac.uk or the supervisors of this project, Prof Salvatore, p.f.salvatore@sussex.ac.uk, Prof Vivarelli, i.vivarelli@sussex.ac.uk)

http://www.sussex.ac.uk/epp/

Timetable

Interviews of shortlisted candidates will be held in February and March initially and will continue until the position is filled.