Date：14th June 2018
Contact：Department of Natural Sciences and Sustainable Development
Ms. Ai-Chia Hsu (Program Manager)
Tel: +886-2-2737-7985 FaX: +886-2-2737-7675
E-mail：achsu@nstc.gov.tw

Bilateral MOU Signed for Phase 2 Upgrade of Large Hadron Collider

    On 14 of June, 2018, Deputy Minister Fong-Chin Su signed the new MOU Addendum with CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research). With this signature, Taiwan’s High Energy Physics (HEP) experimental teams will continue their past efforts and join the Phase 2 Upgrades of CMS (Compact Muon Solenoid) and ATLAS (A Toroidal LHC Apparatus), the two large and very international experiments at CERN, to pursue forefront research in Particle Physics for the next two decades.

Collider-produced 2013 Nobel Prize

    The ATLAS and CMS experiments each involve about 50 countries and 3000 researchers, and operate at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) of CERN. Together they push the energy frontier of human knowledge. With planning in the early 2000’s for Taiwan to join the two experiments, National Science Council (NSC), the predecessor of MOST, signed the Memorandum of Understanding with CERN in 2002, which supported the HEP team from Academia Sinica to join ATLAS, and National Taiwan University and National Central University teams to join CMS. Upon successful running of the LHC since 2009, the long-in-hiding Higgs boson was soon discovered, precipitating the 2013 Nobel Prize, one of the true highlights in Science.

Phase 2 Upgrade and Running

    With prominent performance of in hardware construction, the Taiwanese teams were invited a few years ago to join in the Phase 2 Upgrade of the High-Granularity Calorimeter (HGCal) of CMS, the novel and advanced detector subsystem that redesigns the whole Endcap Calorimeter. The Taiwan team is part of the R&D study, and would become a Module Assembly Center (MAC) that is responsible also for module qualification. Construction of the complex modules would start in 2019, and when completed, the Phase 2 or High Luminosity LHC running would start in 2026, accummulating unprecedented amount of data over a decade. The Phase 2 construction effort and the data analysis to follow would put the Taiwan teams at the forefront of High Energy Physics, both in developing new technology and producing new science.

Affirmation of Taiwan as Hardware Manufacture Hub

    Whether CMS or ATLAS, Phase 2 Upgrade is tending towards Silicon Detectors, which coincides with the strength of Taiwan’s industrial base. Besides R&D and detector module production, the MAC and Silicon Lab could further explore the applications in High Energy and Astrophysics experimentation, while also seek cooperative efforts with Electrical Engineering, Electronics, Computing, and the associated industries. The Phase 2 Upgrade uses many radiation-hard ASIC chips, which would be produced by Taiwanese high-tech companies, demonstrating the high regard from CERN and collaborating countries of Taiwan’s manufacture prowess, and elevates Taiwan’s international visibility. MOST would mediate the synergies of Taiwan HEP with the high-tech semiconductor industry, which could hopefully induce breakthroughs in Taiwan’s industrial model.

Figures:

With high radiation levels and event rate, the CMS experiment completely redsigns the forward/backward Endcap Calorimeters into the novel HGCal,High Granularity Calorimeter, which would be partly produced by Taiwan.

With excellent performance in building CMS Preshower and Pixel Phase 1 Upgrade,Taiwan was invited to be a Module Assembly Center of HGCal for Phase 2 Upgrade.

Media Contact:Research Team Contact Persons

Prof. George Wei-Shu Hou
National Taiwan University
Tel: +886-2-33665096 (office), 886-2-33665145 (lab)
E-mail: wshou@phys.ntu.edu.tw

Prof. Yuan-Hann Chang
National Central University
Tel: +886-3-4227151 ext 65336 (office), ext 65340 (lab)
E-mail: changy@ncu.edu.tw

Prof. Shih-Chang Lee, Academician
Academia Sinica
Tel: +886-2- 27896706 (office), 886-2-27896777 (secretary)
E-mail: phsclee@phys.sinica.edu.tw