Harvard University's Laboratory for Particle Physics and Cosmology (formerly HEPL) carries out forefront research programs in experimental particle physics and cosmology, and provides first-rate educational opportunities for students. Our experimental programs are carried out at accelerator laboratories around the world and address important questions both within and beyond the Standard Model. Our observational cosmology programs span studies of the properties of Dark Energy.

Experimental particle physics and astrophysics have remarkably similar modes of research. Apparatus is developed on campus and then deployed to off-campus facilities for operation and data acquisition. The projects typically involve large international collaborations. Once data are acquired, the results are brought back to campus for refined analysis. The data sets are in the terabyte scale and we will soon see petabyte-scale experiments.

The LPPC provides computing facilities for data analysis, engineering support for detector R&D, and shops for the fabrication of detectors and their readout systems. While our educational efforts are primarily in graduate education, undergraduate students also work on projects at the LPPC. We have recently moved to new quarters: our offices and computers are located in historic Palfrey House at 18 Hammond Street (see above), while our machine shop and test labs are located in the former Cambridge Electron Accelerator at 38 Oxford Street. In the future we plan to be moving into a larger and more modern space in the new Northwest Science Building.

The faculty group leading the LPPC research program at Harvard includes:

• Prof. Gary Feldman works with neutrinos on the MINOS and NOvA experiments.
• Prof. Melissa Franklin works on the ATLAS and CDF experiments.
• Prof. João Guimarães da Costa works on the ATLAS and CDF experiments.
• Prof. John Huth works on the ATLAS experiment.
• Prof. Masahiro Morii works on the ATLAS, BABAR, and LUX experiments.
• Prof. Chirstopher Stubbsworks with Dark Energy including the LSST project.

In addition:

• Dr. George Brandenburg is the former Director of LPPC, and works on the ATLAS experiment.
• Prof. Emeritus Richard Wilson worked on the CLEO experiment.

The LPPC facilities are available to all the groups on an equal basis. Our engineers and shops are capable of designing and building state of the art detector systems and their associated readout electronics. We have produced both prototypes for detector R&D as well as complete major systems for all of our groups. Examples of projects completed in the machine shop include: the CDF Central Tracker Upgrade, CDF Central Muon System Extension, a redesigned Interaction Region for CLEO, and the NOMAD Hadron Calorimeter. We are currently working on the production of ATLAS Muon Drift Tube chambers. The electronics shop has produced readout electronics for most of our detectors, most recently the CDF and CLEO silicon vertex detectors and the front end electronics for the MINOS far detector, and a tracking trigger upgrade for the BABAR detector. We are currently completing the readout system for the ATLAS muon detector and have begun work planning the LSST and NOvA

The LPPC technical staff consists of electronics engineers Dr. John Oliver, Nathan Felt, and Meghna Kundoor; and a machinist, Steve Sansone. The laboratory coordinator is Robyn Simpson Provost

In addition to engineering and shops, LPPC has workstations, personal computers, and associated peripherals which are available to all the groups for data analysis, documentation, and communication with collaborators. A video conferencing system also exists at LPPC for remote participation in meetings at the accelerator labs or at other universities.

Masahiro Morii, November 17, 2009