The ARC Centre of Excellence for Particle Physics (CoEPP)

CoEPP's Melbourne Node is lead by Professor Ray Volkas and brings together experimentalists, as part of the ATLAS collaboration, and theorists to focus on the expected era of discovery the\at the Large Hadron Collider will provide.

CoEPP's Melbourne Node is lead by Professor Ray Volkas and brings together experimentalists, as part of the ATLAS collaboration, and theorists to focus on the expected era of discovery the\at the Large Hadron Collider will provide.

The ARC Centre of Excellence for Particle Physics at the Terascale will exploit a once-in-a-generation opportunity for fundamental scientific research in Australia: the prospect of understanding the origin of mass, discovering new physical laws, and producing and studying dark matter in the laboratory. The first data from the multi-billion dollar Large Hadron Collider (LHC), now operational at CERN in Geneva, presents both a major challenge and an unprecedented promise to Australian science. Complex and rapidly-developing theoretical enquiry meets a flood of experimental data at unprecedented energies where new phenomena await discovery. The Centre provides a synergy between Australian experimental and theoretical high energy physics communities, with increased resources, shared personnel, and a unified structure. It guarantees Australia’s share in the bonanza of discoveries expected in this new “terascale era”, accessing the Tera electron-Volt (TeV or 1012 eV) energy scale.

Over the past two decades, experimental particle physicists have established Australia’s role as foundation members in the ATLAS experiment at the LHC. The theoretical particle physicists in the Centre provide a unique mix of expertise and capability in driving the theoretical underpinning of the discoveries being sought, capable of working with the experimenters to extract the maximum from the LHC. In bringing these groups together, the Centre provides a unified resource to fully exploit the most powerful instrument for fundamental science ever built - the LHC. The Centre will transform Australian research in this field and take a leading role in one of the most important scientific endeavours of the 21st century.

CoEPP website