Experimental Particle Physics

Florencia Canelli's research focuses on fundamental particle physics using particle colliders. Her work aims to study the structure of matter at the highest possible energies to gain a deeper understanding of the universe's fundamental nature.

Currently, her group is part of the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) collaboration at the (CERN)'s Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the most powerful collider ever built. The CMS experiment investigates the properties and interactions of particles as described by the Standard Model of particle physics while also searching for deviations that could point to new forces or particles.

 

The group research addresses key limitations of the Standard Model, particularly regarding the origins of particle mass and the nature of dark matter, which constitutes most of the universe's mass. The group conducts a wide range of measurements and searches for new physics to clarify the mechanisms of electroweak symmetry breaking and improve our understanding of the weak interaction scale.

 

The group significantly contributes to the CMS inner tracking detector (silicon pixel detector), which can capture 65-megapixel images of LHC collisions every 25 nanoseconds. This technology precisely identifies b quarks, which appear in the decay of top quarks and the Higgs boson, with micrometer accuracy. The group is also heavily involved in developing the next-generation inner tracker, which will begin data collection in 2030.

 

In recent years, the group has expanded its efforts to feasibility studies for the  Future Circular Collider (FCC), focusing on its potential for advancing physics and developing cutting-edge tracking detectors.