Physics at the Terascale

Research in particle physics is motivated by the goal of attaining a fundamental description of the laws of physics, such as explaining the origin of mass and understanding the dark matter in the universe. Although fundamentally driven by the quest for knowledge, the ensuing research is performed at the edge of what is feasible technologically and hence drives the development of technology in many areas.

With the start-up of CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in 2008/2009 and preparations for the International Linear Collider (ILC) in full swing, we expect revolutionary results explaining the origin of matter, unravelling the nature of dark matter and providing glimpses of extra spatial dimensions or grand unification of forces. Any of these insights would dramatically change our view of the world.

In order to optimally place German particle physics in an increasingly global environment, it is now the right moment to create new and improved structures for particle physics in Germany.

The Helmholtz Alliance 'Physics at the Terascale' is a structured research network comprising 18 universities, 2 Helmholtz centres and 1 Max Planck Institute. The Alliance acts as a tool for a more effective collaboration, in particular between experimentalists and theorists.

The Alliance covers four Research Topics, addressing the fundamental questions of particle physics, distributed computing, novel detector development and accelerator science.

An important aspect of the Alliance is the creation of common infrastructures. All partners of the Alliance contribute to and use these infrastructures for specific research projects. One example of such infrastructure is the National Analysis Facility (NAF). The Virtual Theory Institute (VTI) holds regular seminars starting in June 2008. These are broadcast via EVO and all Alliance members can particpate. The Analysis Centre provides training, support and own contributions for all analysis-related issues, currently focusing on Monte Carlo generators, parton distribution functions, and statistics tools.

The Alliance is part of a much broader truly international effort to explore the physics at the Terascale. It is the goal of the Alliance to strengthen the position of the German groups working in the field through this coherent ansatz.

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Analysis Centre National Analysis Facility Helmholtz Association Large Hadron Collider International Linear Collider Subscribe to the Alliance general mailing list

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