Michel Lefebvre

Michel Lefebvre
Position
Professor of Physics and Astronomy
University of Victoria
Contact
Office: Elliott 205A
250-721-7706
Credentials

BSc (Laval), Ph.D. (Cambridge)

Area of expertise

Experimental particle physics

Prof. Lefebvre's research focuses on the exploration of the laws of physics at the energy frontier through the study of proton-proton collisions recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider, CERN, Switzerland.

Following activities in the UA2 experiment at CERN's proton-antiproton collider, Prof. Lefebvre acted as founding spokesperson of the ATLAS Canada Collaboration in 1992.  He contributed to the development and construction of liquid argon electromagnetic and hadronic calorimetry, and led the construction at the University of Victoria of related cryogenics components now operational on the ATLAS detector.  The excellent performance of the ATLAS electromagnetic calorimeter was key to the discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012.  His current interests include ATLAS energy measurement performance, precision electroweak measurements, Higgs boson properties, the search for Dark Matter, and improvements of the ATLAS detector for the high luminosity upgrades of the LHC.  He lead the University of Victoria ATLAS group from 1992 to 2003, and again from 2015 to March 2018.  He held many responsibilities within the ATLAS Collaboration. He chaired the NSERC Subatomic Physics Evaluation Section in 2009-2010, was a member of the Board of Management of the TRIUMF Laboratory.  He is currently the UVic representative on the TRIUMF Science Council.  Prof. Lefebvre is a recipient of the University of Victoria Craigdarroch Silver Medal for Research Excellence.

Prof. Lefebvre enjoys teaching undergraduate and graduate courses, and strives to convey the excitement and beauty of physics in his lectures.  He acted as Graduate Advisor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy from 2007 to 2010, and in 2022.  He is a recipient of the University of Victoria Science Award for Teaching Excellence.

Subatomic Smash: The Quest for the Higgs Boson, public talk given by Prof. Lefebvre on April 9th 2013, one of UVic's 50th Anniversary Signature Events.

Research interests

  • Electroweak physics
  • Search for new physics at the LHC
  • Particle detectors

UVic expertise database

Current Graduate Students (* means co-supervision)
Ph.D.
  • *Joseph Kelly
M.Sc.
  • *Annabelle Czihaly
  • Adrienne Scott
Former Graduate Students (* means co-supervision)
Ph.D.
  • Dr. Kayla McLean (Ph.D. 2021)
  • Dr. Justin Chiu (Ph.D. 2020)
  • *Dr. Claire David (Ph.D. 2016)
  • Dr. Frank Berghaus (Ph.D. 2013)
  • Dr. Jean-Raphael Lessard (Ph.D. 2012)
  • *Dr. Anthony Hillairet (Ph.D. 2010)
  • Dr. Matt Dobbs (Ph.D. 2002)
  • Dr. Dugan O'Neil (Ph.D. 2000)
  • *Dr. John White (Ph.D. 1998)
M.Sc.
  • Lucas Polson (M.Sc. 2021)
  • Samantha Taylor (M.Sc. 2021)
  • *Dr. Ewan Hill (M.Sc. 2011)
  • *Dr. Keith Edmonds (M.Sc. 2007)
  • Tamara Hughes (M.Sc. 2006)
  • Dr. Dominique Fortin (M.Sc. 2001)
  • Dr. Steven Robertson (M.Sc. 1994)
  • Dr. John White (M.Sc. 1993)
Current Postdoctoral Researcher and Research Associates
  • Dr. Clément Camincher
  • Dr. Kenji Hamano
  • Dr. Joseph Lambert
  • Dr. John McGowan
Former
  • Dr. Gerardo Vasquez
  • Dr. Christopher Anelli
  • Dr. Swagato Banerjee
  • Dr. Vikas Bansal
  • Dr. Frank Berghaus
  • Dr. Florian Bernlochner
  • Dr. Margret Fincke-Keeler
  • Dr. Naoko Kanaya
  • Dr. Ellis Kay
  • Dr. Emma Siân Kuwertz
  • Dr. Damir Lelas
  • Dr. Christopher Marino
  • Dr. Alex Martyniuck
  • Dr. Mathieu Plamondon
  • Dr. Rimsky Rojas
  • Dr. Carla Sbarra
  • Dr. Rolf Seuster
  • Dr. Monica Trovatelli
  • Dr. Manuela Venturi
  • Dr. Kai Voss
  • Dr. Monika Wielers
ATLAS Collaboration publications (refereed)
ATLAS public conference notes

Other refereed publications:

  • Lucas Polson, Leonid Kurchaninov, Michel Lefebvre, Energy reconstruction in a liquid argon calorimeter cell using convolutional neural networks, 2022 JINST 17 P01002, arXiv.
  • Chien-Yi Chen, Michel Lefebvre, Maxim Pospelov, Diphoton excess through dark mediators. JHEP07(2016)063.

  • J. Pinfold et al., Evaluation of the local hadronic calibration with combined beam-test data for the endcap and forward calorimeters of ATLAS in the pseudorapidity region region 2.5 < |η| < 4.0 , Nucl. Instr. And Meth. A693 (2012) 74-97.

  • J. Pinfold et al., Performance of the ATLAS liquid argon endcap calorimeter in the pseudorapidity region 2.5 < |η| < 4.0 in beam tests, Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A593 (2008) 324-342.

  • D.M. Gingrich et al. (ATLAS Hadronic End-cap Calorimeter Group), Construction, assembly and testing of the ATLAS hadronic end-cap calorimeter, Journal of Instrumentation, 2007 JINST 2 P05005.

  • D. Axen et al., Signal feedthroughs for the ATLAS barrel and endcap calorimeters, Review of Scientific Instruments, 76, 063306 (2005).

  • C. Cojocaru et al. (ATLAS Liquid Argon EMEC/HEC Collaboration), Hadronic Calibration of the ATLAS Liquid Argon End-Cap Calorimeter in the Pseudorapidity Region 1.6 < |η| < 1.8 in Beam Tests , Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A531 (2004) 481-514.

  • D. O'Neil, B. González-Piñeiro and M. Lefebvre, Measuring Vtb via s-channel Single Top at ATLAS , Journal of Physics G: Nucl. Part. Phys. 28 (2002) 2657-2667.

  • B. Dowler et al. (ATLAS Liquid Argon HEC Collaboration), Performance of the ATLAS Hadronic End-Cap Calorimeter in Beam Tests , Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A482 (2002) 94-124.

  • S. Akhmadalev et al. (ATLAS Collaboration, Calorimetry and Data Acquisition), Hadron Energy Reconstruction for the ATLAS Calorimetry in the Framework of the Non-parametrical Method , Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A480 (2002) 508-523.

  • M. Dobbs and M. Lefebvre, Unweighted Event Generation in Hadronic WZ Production of Order (alpha_s) , Physical Review D63, 053011, 2001. (hep-ph/0011206).

  • M. Lefebvre, R.K. Keeler, R. Sobie, and J. White, Propagation of Errors for Matrix Inversion , Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A451 (2000), 520-528. (hep-ex/9909031).

  • S. Akhmadalev et al. (ATLAS Collaboration), Results from a New Combined Test of an Electromagnetic Liquid Argon Calorimeter with a Hadronic Scintillating-tile Calorimeter , Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A449 (2000), 461-477.

  • R.A. Davis et al. (RD3 Collaboration), Test Beam Results of a Stereo Preshower Integrated in the Liquid Argon Accordion Calorimeter , Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A411 (1998) 313-329.

  • D.M. Gingrich et al. (RD3 Collaboration), Performance of an Endcap Prototype of the ATLAS Accordion Electromagnetic Calorimeter , Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A389 (1997) 398-408.

  • Z. Ajaltouni et al. (ATLAS Collaboration, Calorimetry and Data Acquisition), Results from a Combined Test of an Electromagnetic Liquid Argon Calorimeter with a Hadronic Scintillating-Tile Calorimeter , Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A387 (1997) 333-351.

  • D.M. Gingrich et al. (RD3 Collaboration), Construction and Test of a Fine-Grained Liquid Argon Preshower Prototype , Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A385 (1997) 47-57.

  • D.M. Gingrich et al. (RD3 Collaboration), Performance of a Large Scale Prototype of the ATLAS Accordion Electromagnetic Calorimeter , Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A364 (1995) 290-306.

  • D.M. Gingrich et al. (RD3 Collaboration), Performance of a Liquid Argon Accordion Hadronic Calorimeter Prototype , Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A355 (1995) 295-307.

  • A. Cravero et al. (RD3 Collaboration), Performance of the Liquid Argon Electromagnetic and Hadronic Accordion Calorimeter for the LHC , Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A344 (1994) 39-46.

  • J. Alitti et al. (UA2 Collaboration), A Search for New Intermediate Vector Bosons and Excited Quarks Decaying to Two-Jets at the CERN PPbar Collider , Nucl. Phys. B400 (1993) 3-22.

  • B. Aubert et al. (RD3 Collaboration), Performance of a Liquid Argon Preshower Detector Integrated with the Accordion Calorimeter , Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A330 (1993) 405-415.

  • J. Alitti et al. (UA2 Collaboration), Measurement of the Gluon Structure Function from Direct Photon Data at the CERN PPbar Collider , Phys. Lett. B299 (1993) 174-182.

  • B. Aubert et al. (RD3 Collaboration), Performance of a Liquid Argon Electromagnetic Colorimeter with a Cylindrical Accordion Geometry , Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A325 (1993) 116-128.

  • J. Alitti et al. (UA2 Collaboration), A Measurement of Single and Double Prompt Photon Production at the CERN PPbar Collider , Phys. Lett. B288 (1992) 386-394.

  • B. Aubert et al. (RD3 Collaboration), Performance of a Liquid Argon Accordion Calorimeter with Fast Readout , Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A321 (1992) 467-478.

  • J. Alitti et al. (UA2 Collaboration), A Search for Charged Higgs from Top Quark Decay at the CERN PPbar Collider , Phys. Lett. B280 (1992) 137-145.

  • J. Alitti et al. (UA2 Collaboration), Direct Measurement of the W-g Coupling at the CERN PPbar Collider , Phys. Lett. B277 (1992), 194-202.

  • J. Alitti et al. (UA2 Collaboration), Experimental Limit on the Decay W+/- --> pi+/- photon at the CERN PPbar Collider , Phys. Lett. B277 (1992) 203-208.

  • J. Alitti et al. (UA2 Collaboration), A Measurement of the W and Z Production Cross Sections and Determination of the W width at the CERN PPbar Collider , Phys. Lett. B276 (1992) 365-374.

  • J. Alitti et al. (UA2 Collaboration), An Improved Determination of the Ratio of W and Z Masses at the CERN PPbar Collider , Phys. Lett. B276 (1992) 354-364.

  • J. Alitti et al. (UA2 Collaboration), Study of Electron Pair Production Below the Z Mass at the CERN PPbar Collider , Phys. Lett. B275 (1992) 202-208.

  • J. Alitti et al. (UA2 Collaboration), A Search for Scalar Leptoquarks at the CERN PPbar Collider , Phys. Lett. B274 (1992), 507-512.

  • J. Alitti et al. (UA2 Collaboration), A Study of Multi-Jet Events at the CERN PPbar Collider and a Search for Double Parton Scattering , Phys. Lett. B268 (1991) 145-154.

  • B. Aubert et al. (RD3 Collaboration), Performance of a Liquid Argon Electromagnetic Calorimeter with an 'Accordion' Geometry , Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A309 (1991) 438-449.

  • J. Alitti et al. (UA2 Collaboration), A Measurement of Electron-Tau Universality from Decays of Intermediate Vector Bosons and the CERN PPbar Collider , Z. Phys. C - Particles and Fields 52, 209-218 (1991).

  • J. Alitti et al. (UA2 Collaboration), A Measurement of Direct Photon Production Cross Section at the CERN PPbar Collider , Phys. Lett. B263 (1991) 544-550.

  • J. Alitti et al. (UA2 Collaboration), A Determination of the Strong Coupling Constant alpha_s from W Production at the CERN PPbar Collider , Phys. Lett. B263 (1991) 563-572.

  • J. Alitti et al. (UA2 Collaboration), Inclusive-Jet Cross-Section and a Search for Quark Compositeness at the CERN PPbar Collider , Phys. Lett. B257 (1991) 232-240.

  • J. Alitti, et al. (UA2 Collaboration), A Measurement of Two Jet Decays of the W and Z Bosons at the CERN PPbar Collider , Z. Phys. C - Particles and Fields 49, 17-28 (1991).

  • J. Alitti, et al. (UA2 Collaboration), Measurement of the Transverse Momentum Distributions of W and Z Bosons at the CERN PPbar Collider , Z. Phys. C - Particles and Fields 47, 523-531 (1990).

  • J. Alitti, et al. (UA2 Collaboration), A Precise Determination of the W and Z Masses at the CERN PPbar Collider , Phys. Lett. B241 (1990) 150-164.

  • J. Alitti, et al. (UA2 Collaboration), Measurement of W and Z Production Cross Sections at the CERN PPbar Collider , Z. Phys. C - Particles and Fields 47, 11 -22 (1990).

  • T. Åkesson, et al. (UA2 Collaboration), Search for Scalar Electrons and Winos at the CERN PPbar Collider , Phys. Lett. B238 (1990) 442-450.

  • J. Alitti, et al. (UA2 Collaboration), A Search for Squark and Gluino Production at the CERN PPbar Collider , Phys. Lett. B235, (1990) 363-372.

  • T. Åkesson, et al. (UA2 Collaboration), Search for Top Quark Production at the CERN PPbar Collider , Z. Phys. C - Particles and Fields 46, 179-189 (1990).

  • J. Alitti et al, Performance of the Scintillating Fibre Detector in the Upgraded UA2 Detector , Nucl. Instr. and Meth. A279 (1989) 364-375.

  • R.E. Ansorge et al, Performance of a Scintillating Fibre Detector for the UA2 Upgrade , Nucl. Instr. And Meth. A265 (1988) 33-49.