Research team

Expertise

Since October 1998, I am a member of the H1 experiment at the HERA electron-proton collider located at the DESY laboratory in Hamburg, Germany. My research in H1 was focused on diffractive interactions and their interpretation in quantum chromodynamic (QCD) theory. This includes analysis of H1 data leading to direct contributions to several publications. Between 2003 and 2005, I was responsible for the installation and commissioning of a new proton spectrometer that was partially developed and funded by Belgian research groups. In 2008, I co-developed a data acquisition system for future linear collider experiments under the 6th Framework Program of the EU (EUDET project). Since 2009, I joined the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in CERN where I am involved in several data analysis on the study of QCD, as search for the Higgs Boson. I was session convener at five international conferences and co-organized the ISMD 2010 conference in Antwerp, Belgium.

Search for supersymmetry with 13 TeV proton-proton collisions at the LHC with the CMS detector. 01/01/2016 - 31/12/2019

Abstract

With the discovery of the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, announced in July 2012, decades of searches for this cornerstone of the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics concluded with a triumph of science. Despite its remarkable success in describing the experimental data so far, there exist compelling reasons to expect new physics to extend the SM. One of the most studied extensions is Supersymmetry (SUSY). This theory addresses several of the fundamental open questions in the field through the prediction of so-far unobserved new particles. The LHC provides a unique place to search for SUSY at energies never reached before in a laboratory. The LHC will restart colliding protons in Spring 2015 at nearly doubled energy and with higher rates. With a Higgs boson already discovered, searching for new physics, in particular SUSY, is now the top priority of the LHC experiments. The Flemish institutes participating in the CMS experiment propose a research project comprising of a suite of coherent and complementary analyses with the goal to discover or rule out so-called natural SUSY. In either case, the results will have direct impact on the future direction of the field. In case of no discovery, SUSY will lose its long-standing appeal as an extension of the SM. In case of discovery, a new chapter opens for particle physics and our fundamental understanding of space, time, and matter, with possible far-reaching consequences on other research fields.

Researcher(s)

Research team(s)

Project type(s)

  • Research Project