The ATLAS experiment situated at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in Switzerland is among the world's largest particle physics detectors. It investigates the fundamental building blocks of matter, and mysteries as dark matter and is famous for discoveries such as the Higgs boson. From 2026 onwards the LHC will be upgraded to be even more powerful (High-Luminosity LHC) and the ATLAS experiments will also be improved with new detectors and better luminosity measurements.
The Inner Tracker (ITk) is a brand-new, all-silicon tracking system designed to replace the original Inner Detector for the High-Luminosity upgrade of the Large Hydron Collider at CERN. It measures the paths, momentum, and electrical charge of tiny particles created during high-energy proton smashups and is essential for discoveries of new physics. The Inner Tracker is currently in the construction phase and the UiO group is responsible for building around 200 3D Silicon pixel modules which will be assembled to a large pixel detector.
The following master projects, and others, are available working on the Inner Tracker:
A. 3D module building production analysis and integration work, construction of modules for ATLAS is subject to a number of tests and inspections before being approved for installation. In this process a lot of data is collected and need to be analysed and understood. Also there are known and unknown issues that will need an in-depth study based on simulations. The module production will go over in integration work as the modules need to be assembled into larger structures at other institutions internationally.
B. 3D testbeam analysis. The modules are built with 3D silicon sensors developed with SINTEF, they have been subject to tests with and without radiation, this project will be to look at the previous testbeam data in-depth and make simulations where needed to extract new information about these sensors and their operation.
C. The current Inner detector has been operating for more than 15 years, studies have shown the development of failures over time of the silicon pixel modules using AI. One possible project would be to develop a software for ITK to monitor such errors in particular with respect to known issues such as the core column problem.
D. Topic in collaboration with the ATLAS group CERN from their list of open topics
The work will take place in the E-lab in close collaboration with the E-lab team.
If funding is available the student is expected to travel to CERN for shorter or longer stays
Courses relevant from the bachelor's degree:
Recommended courses for theoretical curriculum in the master's programme: