LAWRENCE — A University of Kansas project to design and build two cutting-edge particle detectors for the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider has been approved for funding through the U.S. Department of Energy’s Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research , or DOE EPSCoR.
The $1 million KU-led project contributes to the next phase of research at the world’s most powerful collider, strengthens collaboration with Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and creates hands-on research opportunities for Kansas students.
The four-year project will produce two High-Luminosity Zero Degree Calorimeters, or HL-ZDCs, for one of the collider’s main detectors, the CMS. The detectors will be fabricated and assembled at KU’s Mechanical Prototyping Lab , tested with high-energy particle beams at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and ultimately installed at CERN for the next phase of cutting-edge physics research at the supercollider.
The project is headed by Michael Murray, KU professor of physics & astronomy, who serves as the CMS HL-ZDC upgrade project leader, and KU Distinguished Professor Christophe Royon. KU postdoctoral researcher Georgios Krintiras will lead elements of the detector data-reconstruction software.
“This project connects the full chain of experimental science,” Murray said. “Detectors assembled in Lawrence will be tested in a high-energy beam at Fermilab, installed at CERN and then used by an international collaboration to answer fundamental questions about matter.”
Zero Degree Calorimeters sit on opposite sides of the Compact Muon Solenoid’s particle beams to detect energetic neutrons and photons that escape close to the beamline. Those measurements allow physicists to reconstruct what kind of collisions have taken place.
HL-ZDC detectors and particle-beam interactions. Courtesy of Georgios Krintiras
“In collisions between lead nuclei, the number and pattern of forward-moving neutrons help determine whether the nuclei struck nearly head-on or only glanced past one another,” Krintiras said. “That information is essential both for studying the quark-gluon plasma, an extremely hot state of matter thought to have filled the universe during its first few millionths of a second, and for identifying ultraperipheral collisions, in which the nuclei interact through their intense electromagnetic fields.”
The MPL at KU built the legacy ZDCs used by CMS, which have supported the experiment’s heavy-ion research through the first three periods of the Large Hadron Collider’s operation. The High-Luminosity LHC will create a much more demanding environment, with higher radiation levels, more closely spaced collisions and less room for the detectors. The replacement instruments therefore must be narrower, faster and far more resistant to radiation.
“Kansas students will have the opportunity to contribute at every step,” Murray said.
After assembly at KU, each completed HL-ZDC will undergo testing at the Fermilab Test Beam Facility . KU students and researchers also will work with Fermilab specialists on detector simulations and software development. Training at Fermilab’s LHC Physics Center will prepare students for data-taking once the upgraded collider begins operation.
For KU, the award will strengthen capabilities beyond a single detector. Students will gain experience in precision manufacturing, radiation-hard instrumentation, electronics, scientific software and large international collaborations. KU will deepen its relationship with Fermilab while preserving detector expertise and infrastructure in Kansas for future projects in nuclear and particle physics.
Once completed, the two calorimeters will be shipped to CERN and integrated into CMS before the first heavy-ion data of the High-Luminosity LHC era, now slated for mid-2030.