Division of Elementary Particle Physics

The research programme of the Division is carried out mainly within large international collaborations. The principal purpose of the experiments is to study the structure of matter on subnuclear scales and the properties of fundamental forces acting among its constituents.

The experimental programme of the Division is focused on a big collider experiment ATLAS at the LHC collider at CERN, as well as an experiment from the realm of astroparticle physics – the Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentine. This illustrates one of the most remarkable features of contemporary physics – ever-deeper connection of the laws of microcosm with the phenomena of macrocosm as traditionally studied by astrophysics.

The characteristic features of particle physics experiments are long-term planning and large time horizons. For these reasons we take part, within the framework of the international CALICE project, in the development of detectors for the proposed International Linear Collider of electrons and positrons, ILC, which appears to be the most prospective accelerator facility candidate for the era after LHC. The same is true for large astroparticle experiments. For similar reasons, we therefore actively participate in preparation and design of the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA), the future largest obdervatory of very high energy cosmic gamma rays.

Besides large projects, the Division is active, to a lesser extent, at other experiments at CERN (ALICE, TOTEM) and at long baseline neutrino experiment NOvA. Integral part of our programme is also many-sided theoretical research.