Professor Iain Bertram

Professor Emeritus

Research Interests

Two of the major questions facing fundamental physics are:What are the fundamental constituents of the universe and how do they interact? and How did the Universe begin, and how does it evolve?

Currently our best description of the theory of fundamental interactions of particles, the standard model of particle physics (SM), does not describe the Universe we live in. The SM cannot explain the observed matter-antimatter asymmetry of the Universe. This is before we consider the problem the 95% of the Universe that is made up of "dark" matter and energy of which the SM has nothing to say.

I am currently working on the ATLAS experiment based at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva. I am searching for phenomena that cannot be explained by the standard model of particle physics. The LHC is running at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, the highest energy particle collisions ever produced on earth.

I am investigating the creation of high energy jets of particles in these proton-proton collisions. In most proton proton collisions two jets of particles are produced. By measuring the energy of each of the jets, physicists can calculate their mass (using Einstein’s E = mc2), this is called the dijet mass.

The phenomena I will be searching for include excited quarks, quantum black holes and additional bosons that appear as a peak in the mass spectrum or as a deviation from the predictions of the standard model. Some of these particles could interatct with Dark mater. The latest results (from an analysis of data collected in 2015 to 2016) was published in Physical Review D where we probe masses of the order of 5 TeV. Unfortunatley we have not found anything new yet.

I am currently working to improve this search by "tagging" the jets as being created by quarks or gluons. The results of this research should be published by the end of 2019.

Previous Research Areas

I worked on the confirmation, published in Physical Review D, of the X(5568) particle observed by the the DØ experiment using semileptonic decays of the Bs0 meson. The X(5568) is an exiotc particle candidate that is composed of two quarks and two anti-quarks, an up quark, a strange anti-quark, a bottom quark and an anti-down quark (normal matter is made up of baryons with three quarks or mesons made of a quark and an anti-quark).

I carried out searches for differences between the behaviour of particles and anti-particles (CP violation) that contain bottom (or b) quarks. The most important of these results is the investigation of the decays of electrically neutral B mesons (particles made up of a quark and an anti-quark, one of them a b-quark) to a muon and other particles: Bs0 → DsμX and Bd0 → D(∗)μX. These processes are especially sensitive to the difference between matter and antimatter.At the time of their publication both of these results were the most precise tests of their kind in the world.

I also made several “standard candle” measurements of CP violation in the decay processes B± → J/ψK±, B± → μ±D0, Ds± → φπ± and D± → K∓π±π±.

I have also used the measurement of Bs0 → DsμX decays to see if the fabric of space has a preferred direction (known as CPT violation or Lorentz violation).

Unfortunately I have not found any new sources of CP-violation that would be able to explain the matter domination of the Universe. I am continuing the search in the decay of mesons containing charm quarks.

Selected Publications

Measurement of the forward-backward asymmetry in the production of B± mesons in pp¯ collisions at s√=1.96  TeV
D0 Collaboration 4/02/2015 In: Physical review letters. 114, 5, 8 p.
Journal article

Measurement of the direct CP-violating parameter A_CP in the decay D+ -> K- pi+ pi+
D0 Collaboration 11/12/2014 In: Physical Review D. 90, 11, 8 p.
Journal article

Measurement of the Direct CP-violating Charge Asymmetry in D±s→ϕπ± Decays
D0 Collaboration 21/03/2014 In: Physical review letters. 112, 8 p.
Journal article

Study of CP-violating charge asymmetries of single muons and like-sign dimuons in pp̅ collisions
D0 Collaboration 14/01/2014 In: Physical Review D. 89, 1, 31 p.
Journal article

An improved measurement of direct CP violation parameters in B^+- -> J/psi K^+- and B^+- -> J/psi pi^+- decays
Collaboration, D., Bertram, I., Borissov, G., Ross, A., Williams, M., Ratoff, P., Fox, H., Lamont, I., Beattie, M. 12/06/2013 In: Physical review letters. 110, 24, 7 p.
Journal article

Measurement of the semileptonic charge asymmetry using Bs^0 -> D_s mu X decays
Bertram, I., Borissov, G., Williams, M., Fox, H., Ross, A., Ratoff, P., D0 Collaboration, T. 3/01/2013 In: Physical review letters. 110, 1, 7 p.
Journal article

Measurement of the semileptonic charge asymmetry in B0 meson mixing with the D0 detector
Collaboration, D., Bertram, I., Borissov, G., Ross, A., Williams, M., Fox, H., Ratoff, P., Price, D. 26/10/2012 In: Physical Review D. 86, 7, 20 p.
Journal article

Measurement of neutrino oscillation parameters from muon neutrino disappearance with an off-axis beam
T2K Collaboration, Brailsford, D.B. 19/11/2013 In: Physical review letters. 111, 21, 7 p.
Journal article

Higgs Boson Studies at the Tevatron
Collaboration, C., Bertram, I., Borissov, G., Fox, H., Ratoff, P., D0 Collaboration, T. 17/09/2013 In: Physical Review D. 88, 5, 27 p.
Journal article

The electromagnetic calorimeter for the T2K near detector ND280
Kormos, L., Bertram, I., Ratoff, P., Bentham, S., Grant, N., Reeves, M., Finch, A., Davies, G., O'Keeffe, H., Hatzikoutelis, A., Maryon, T., Mercer, I., Reeves, M. 17/10/2013 In: Journal of Instrumentation. 8, 10, 42 p.
Journal article

Combined search for the Higgs boson with the D0 experiment
Collaboration, D., Bertram, I., Borissov, G., Fox, H., Ratoff, P. 17/09/2013 In: Physical Review D. 88, 5, 17 p.
Journal article

Search for Neutral Higgs Bosons in Events with Multiple Bottom Quarks at the Tevatron
Collaboration, C., Collaboration, D., [No Value], T., Bertram, I., Borissov, G., Fox, H., Ross, A., Williams, M., Ratoff, P. 6/11/2012 In: Physical Review D. 86, 9, 11 p.
Journal article

Measurement of the W Boson Mass with the D0 Detector
Collaboration, D., Bertram, I., Borissov, G., Fox, H., Ross, A., Williams, M., Ratoff, P. 12/04/2012 In: Physical review letters. 108, 15, 8 p.
Journal article

Study of direct CP violation in $B^{\pm} \to J/ψK^{\pm}(π^{\pm})$ decays
Collaboration, D., Abazov, V., Bertram, I., Williams, M., Borissov, G., Ratoff, P., Fox, H. 22/02/2008 In: Physical review letters. 100, 21, 7 p.
Journal article

Observation and properties of the orbitally excited B_{s2}* Meson
Collaboration, D., Abazov et al, V., Bertram, I., Borissov, G., Fox, H., Love, P., Rakitin, A., Ratoff, P., Sopczak, A., Williams, M. 28/02/2008 In: Physical review letters. 100, 8, 7 p.
Journal article

Study of the Decay B D D
Collaboration, D., Abazov, V., Bertram, I., Borissov, G., Fox, H., Love, P., Ratoff, P., Sopczak, A., Walder, J. 12/12/2007 In: Physical review letters. 99, 24, p. 241801. 7 p.
Journal article

High-pT jets in p¯p collisions at s=630 and 1800 GeV
Abbott, B., Abdesselam, A., Abolins, M., Abramov, V., Acharya, B., Adams, D., Adams, M., Alves, G., Amos, N., Anderson, E., Astur, R., Baarmand, M., Babintsev, V., Babukhadia, L., Bacon, T., Baden, A., Baldin, B., Balm, P., Banerjee, S., Barberis, E., Baringer, P., Bartlett, J., Bassler, U., Bauer, D., Bean, A., Begel, M., Belyaev, A., Beri, S., Bernardi, G., Bertram, I., Besson, A., Beuselinck, R., Bezzubov, V., Bhat, P., Bhatnagar, V., Bhattacharjee, M., Blazey, G., Blessing, S., Boehnlein, A., Bojko, N., Borcherding, F., Brandt, A., Breedon, R., Briskin, G., Brock, R., Brooijmans, G., Bross, A., Buchholz, D., Buehler, M., Buescher, V., Burtovoi, V., Butler, J., Canelli, F., Carvalho, W., Casey, D., Casilum, Z., Castilla-valdez, H., Chakraborty, D., Chan, K., Chekulaev, S., Cho, D., Choi, S., Chopra, S., Christenson, J., Chung, M., Claes, D., Clark, A., Cochran, J., Coney, L., Connolly, B., Cooper, W., Coppage, D., Cummings, M., Cutts, D., Davis, G., Davis, K., De, K., Del Signore, K 11/07/2001 In: Physical Review D. 64, 3
Journal article

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

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

13TH PATRAS WORKSHOP ON AXIONS, WIMPS AND WISPS
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

25th International Workshop on Deep Inelastic Scattering and Related Topics
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

38th International Conference on High Energy Physics
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

24th International Workshop on Deep-Inelastic Scattering and Related Subjects
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

The European Physical Society Conference on High Energy Physics 2015
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

UK HEP Forum - Future Colliders
Participation in workshop, seminar, course

CKM2014
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

Beach 2014
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

Beauty 2014 The 15th International Conference on B-Physics at Frontier Machines
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

U.S. Department of Energy (External organisation)
Membership of committee

Charm 2013,The 6th International Workshop on Charm Physics
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

XXI. International Workshop on Deep-Inelastic Scattering and Related Subjects
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

Beauty 2013: The 14th International Conference on B-Physics at Hadron Machine
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

Liverpool John Moores University (External organisation)
Membership of committee

ICHEP2012 - 36th International Conference for High Energy Physics
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

24th Rencontres de Blois, Particle Physics and Cosmology
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

Standard Model @ LHC 2012
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

The 13th International Conference on B-Physics at Hadron Machines - Beauty 2011
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

Lattice Meets Phenomenology Workshop
Participation in workshop, seminar, course

6th International Workshop on the CKM Unitarity Triangle - CKM2010
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

Physics at LHC 2010
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

12th International Conference on B-Physics at Hadron Machines - Beauty 2009
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

Breakthrough Prize 2016
Prize (including medals and awards)

  • Experimental Particle Physics