Professor Roger William Lewis Jones MA (Oxon), PhD (Bham), CPhys, FInstP

Head of Department, Professor

Research Interests

My research interests are in experimental elementary (high-energy) particle physics. They are divided into three activities:

  • Searches for new physcis using particles containing b-quarks using the ATLAS experiment, particles containing strange quarks in the NA62 exepriment, and neutrinos in the Legend collaboration.
  • The investigation of the strong nuclear force, and the predictions of the theory describing that force, QCD
  • The development of world-wide computing systems to serve the huge processing and storage requirements of particle physics and other science areas.

My ATLAS studies at the LHC involve the decays of particles that contain b-quarks that will allow us better to understand a rare violation of a symmetry known as CP. this is intimately connected with the matter-antimatter asymmetry in the universe. These are also an ideal area to properly understand the behavior of the tracking detectors and software, which we need before we can properly apply the tracking in Higgs and SUSY searches. We are also investigating the use of b-events as a window into new 'flavour dependent' physics.

At LEP II, I investigated the strong interaction as a member of the ALEPH collaboration, and various measures of its strength. I look at the general shape, and flow of energy and momentum in events. I remain the convener of the LEP QCD Working Group and of its Annihilations subgroup. We attempt to combine experimental results at various energies to give clear evidence for the change of the strength of the strong interaction with increasing energy scale; we also try to provide a consistent treatment of theoretical uncertainties in these measurements. I also investigated strong interaction effects in the decays of W boson pairs, particularly a prediceted phenomenom called 'colour reconnection'.

Recently, I have also been working on the Data Processing for the Rubin Observatory/Legecy Synoptic Survey Telecscope. I lead the processing in the UK, which will handle at least 1/4 of the data in the project.

In order to do all of this exciting physics, advanced software and a world-wide computing system is required. For ATLAS, I was until 2009 the chair of the International Computing Board and am part of the computing project leadership team. I continue to develop the ATLAS computing model. I run the UK component of the ATLAS offline computing and software project. At Lancaster, we are developing tracking tools for ATLAS and Grid software for the community.We provide a Grid computing farm as part of the NorthGrid Tier 2 (spread over Lancaster, Liverpool, Manchester and Sheffield); I chair the NorthGrid Management Board. The Tier 2 is part of the GridPP collaboration, and I used to Co-ordinate the experiment applications development in GridPP and sit on the Project Management Board representing ATLAS and NorthGrid. I was a member of STFC's Computing Advisory Panel from 2009-2014 (and was previously on PPARC's Computing Advisory Panel from 2007-2009) and chair the Particle Physics Users Advisory Committee.

I was elected chair of the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (wLCG) Collaboration Board in July 2009.

I became a member fo the STFC Particle Physics Advisory Panel in October 2015 and was Chair 2019-2022.

I joined the Institute of Physics Head of Department Forum Steering Committe in 2015 and was Chair 2019-2024.

Selected Publications

Time-dependent angular analysis of the decay Bs -> J/psi phi and extraction of Delta Gamma_s and the CP-violating weak phase phi_s by ATLAS
The ATLAS collaboration 12/2012 In: Journal of High Energy Physics. 2012, 12, 42 p.
Journal article

Measurement of the differential cross-sections of inclusive, prompt and non-prompt J/psi production in proton-proton collisions at root s=7 TeV
The ATLAS collaboration 21/09/2011 In: Nuclear Physics B. 850, 3, p. 387-444. 58 p.
Journal article

Observation of a new particle in the search for the Standard Model Higgs boson with the ATLAS detector at the LHC
The ATLAS collaboration 17/09/2012 In: Physics Letters B. 716, 1, p. 1-29. 29 p.
Journal article

Measurements of the strong coupling constant and the QCD color factors using four jet observables from hadronic Z decays.
Schael, S., Bouhova-Thacker, E.V., Bowdery, C.K., Finch, A.J., Hughes, G., Jones, R.W.L., Smizanska, M., ALEPH Collaboration, T. 03/2003 In: European Physical Journal C: Particles and Fields. 27, 1, p. 1-17. 17 p.
Journal article

Search for the decay B-s(0) -> mu(+)mu(-) with the ATLAS detector
The ATLAS collaboration 18/07/2012 In: Physics Letters B. 713, 4-5, p. 387-407. 21 p.
Journal article

Measurement of the Λb lifetime and mass
The ATLAS collaboration 4/02/2013 In: Physical Review D. 87, 3, 19 p.
Journal article

Theoretical uncertainties on alpha_s from event-shape variables in e+e? annihilations.
Jones, R.W.L., Ford, M., Salam, G.P., Stenzel, H., Wicke, D. 1/12/2003 In: Journal of High Energy Physics. 2003, 12, p. 7-37. 31 p.
Journal article

Studies of QCD at e+ e- centre-of-mass energies between 91-GeV and 209-GeV
Jones, R.W.L., Finch, A., Bouhova-Thacker, E., Hughes, G., Smizanska, M., ALEPH Collaboration, T. 07/2004 In: European Physical Journal C: Particles and Fields. 35, 4, p. 457-486. 30 p.
Journal article

Precision Electroweak Measurements on the Z resonance.
Jones, R.W.L., Borissov, G., Grunewald, M.W., Ratoff, P.N., Smizanska, M. 1/03/2006 In: Physics Reports. 427, 5-6, p. 257-454. 198 p.
Journal article

Measurement of A**b(FB) using inclusive b hadron decays
ALEPH Collaboration, T., Heister, A., Bouhova-Thacker, E., Bowdery, C., Finch, A., Foster, F., Hughes, G., Jones, R. 11/2001 In: European Physical Journal C: Particles and Fields. 22, 2, p. 201-215. 15 p.
Journal article

A Measurement of the inclusive b ---> s gamma branching ratio
ALEPH Collaboration, T., Barate, R., Betteridge, A., Bowdery, C., Colrain, P., Finch, A., Foster, F., Hughes, G., Jones, R., Sloan, T., Williams, M. 11/06/1998 In: Physics Letters B. 429, 1-2, p. 169-187. 19 p.
Journal article

Measurements of the structure of quark and gluon jets in hadronic Z decays
ALEPH Collaboration, T., Barate, R., Betteridge, A., Bowdery, C., Colrain, P., Finch, A., Foster, F., Hughes, G., Jones, R., Williams, M. 10/2000 In: European Physical Journal C: Particles and Fields. 17, 1, p. 1-18. 18 p.
Journal article

GridPP7 Lancaster Staff Grant
01/04/2024 → 31/03/2028
Research

LSST: UK Data Release Processing funding 1 April 2024 - 31 March 2027
01/04/2024 → 31/03/2027
Research

LSST:UK hardware grant for FY23
12/01/2024 → 11/03/2024
Research

GridPP7 Lancaster Tier 2 Hardware Tranche 1 (2023-2026)
01/10/2023 → 31/03/2026
Research

Lancaster EPP Group Responsive Grant Bid 2022
01/04/2023 → 30/09/2025
Research

UK involvement in LSST: Phase C (Lancaster D4.1 component)
01/04/2023 → 31/03/2024
Research

Upgrade of the ATLAS detector at the LHC (2023-26)
01/04/2023 → 31/03/2026
Research

Upgrade of the ATLAS detector at the LHC (2023-26)
01/04/2023 → 31/03/2026
Research

Lancaster Experimental Particle Physics Consolidated Grant 2022-25
01/10/2022 → 30/09/2025
Research

LSST: Data Release Processing
01/12/2021 → 31/03/2023
Research

GRIDPP6 Tier-2 Hardware Tranche-2 (2022-2024)
01/10/2021 → 31/03/2024
Research

IRIS Digital Asset - ATLAS GPF Machine Learning
01/09/2021 → 31/03/2022
Research

GRIDPP6 Hardware Tranche 2
01/02/2021 → 31/03/2022
Research

GRIDPP6 Lancaster Effort Staff
01/04/2020 → 31/03/2025
Research

STFC IAA: Impact Acceleration Account 2020
01/04/2020 → 31/03/2022
Research

GridPP6 Tranche 1 Hardware Grant
01/01/2020 → 31/03/2022
Research

GridPP5 Northgrid-Lancaster staff grant 2015-2020 (Additional Funding)
01/12/2019 → 30/09/2020
Research

Consolidated Grant 2019 - 2022
01/10/2019 → 30/09/2023
Research

Consolidated Grant 2019 - 2022 Additional Funding
01/10/2019 → 30/09/2023
Research

GridPP response to the Year 1 - IRIS provider call
01/01/2019 → 31/03/2019
Research

Physics@WOMAD 2018 and set-up for Physics@WOMAD 2019
01/11/2018 → 30/11/2019
Research

GridPP5 Lancaster tranche 2 h/w Grant
01/10/2018 → 31/03/2020
Research

Lancaster EPP Capital bid 2018
01/10/2018 → 31/03/2020
Research

Standard
01/04/2018 → 30/09/2024
Research

Lancaster EPP Capital Bid 2016
01/01/2017 → 31/10/2017
Research

Lancaster Experimental Particle Physics Consolidated Grant 2015-2019
01/10/2015 → 31/03/2020
Research

STFC Capital Bid from the HEP Group to STFC 2015
01/10/2015 → 31/03/2016
Research

ATLAS PDRA
01/01/1900 → …
Research

24th International Conference on Computing in High Energy and Nuclear Physics
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

WLCG/HSF Workshop
Participation in workshop, seminar, course

Joint HSF/WLCG/OSF Workshop 2019
Participation in workshop, seminar, course

Spectroscopy, production and exotica in HF states in ATLAS
Invited talk

Taking science to festivals: engaging the public where they least expect it
Invited talk

XIII INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON BEAUTY, CHARM AND HYPERON HADRONS
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

Beauty 2018
Invited talk

18th International Workshop on Advanced Computing and Analysis Techniques in Physics Research
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

First International School on Heterogeneous Computing Infrastructure
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

LHC Days in Split
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

QCD@LHC 2016
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

Science and Technology Facilities Council (External organisation)
Member of an organisation

International Conference on New Frontiers in Physics
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

21st International Conference on Computing in High Energy and Nuclear Physics
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

RECODE Policy guidelines for open access and data preservation and dissemination workshop
Participation in workshop, seminar, course

16th International workshop on Advanced Computing and Analysis Techniques in physics research (ACAT)
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

20th Particles and Nuclei International Conference 2014
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

RECODE Institutional support for open access to research data Workshop
Participation in workshop, seminar, course

EGI User Forum 2013
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

Les Rencontres de Physique de la Vallée d'Aoste
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

ATLAS UK Physics Workshop
Participation in workshop, seminar, course

European Grid Initiative (External organisation)
Membership of committee

ATLAS Future Computing Workshop
Participation in workshop, seminar, course

Science and Technology Facilities Council (External organisation)
Member of an organisation

Future Computing in High Energy Physics
Participation in workshop, seminar, course

Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (External organisation)
Membership of committee

IoP HEPP Confernece
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

Science and Technology Facilities Council (External organisation)
Member of an organisation

  • DSI - Foundations
  • Experimental Particle Physics