Particle Physics: From the Early Universe to the Large Hadron Collider
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Manchester
Department Name: Physics and Astronomy
Abstract
Particle physics is all about understanding the elementary building blocks of nature and their interactions. Over the years, physicists have developed the Standard Model of particle physics, which is extremely successful in describing a very wide range of natural phenomena from things as basic as how light works and why atoms form through to the complicated workings inside stars and the synthesis of nuclei in the first few minutes after the Big Bang. However, we know that the Standard Model is not the whole story for it leaves many questions unanswered. Our proposal focuses on these unanswered questions and the way that scientists hope to address them in the coming years using experiments like the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) or observations like those that will be made using the Planck satellite. At the LHC, physicists are searching for the Higgs boson, which represents our current best guess as to what is responsible for the origin of mass. They are also searching for a whole host of new particles such as those predicted by supersymmetry. If supersymmetry is discovered then it offers the hope also to explain the origin of the Dark Matter that makes up a large fraction of the material that is known to exist in the Universe. The scientists in our consortium will explore the theory of supersymmetry and dark matter. We will use data from experiments like the LHC to identify which of the many possible variants of supersymmetry are allowed by the data and to suggest new ways to explore those models in experiments. Any 'new physics' produced at the LHC will be produced as a result of smashing two protons into each other and that means they will be produced in a complicated environment, probably in association with 'jets' of other particles. Members of our consortium will explore how we can make use of these jets to learn more about the associated new physics: the better we understand the environment in which new physics occurs, the more we are able to learn about the new physics itself. This is a complicated business that often necessitates computer simulations of particle collisions. Our members are experts in these simulations and have plans on how the make them more accurate, which is necessary if we are to make the most of the exciting data from the LHC. The Standard Model of particle physics is also deficient when it comes to explaining the early history of the Universe, when it was hot and dense. The evidence is now very strong that the history began with an era of accelerating expansion, called inflation. We are experts on inflation and its consequences. Inflation makes the Universe featureless, except for quantum fluctuations which somehow grow, causing the density of matter and energy in the Universe to vary with position. These initially small variations grow to become observable effects. One effect is the formation of the billions of galaxies that populate the night sky. Another effect is to leave a tiny imprint on the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB), a faint hum of microwave radiation in which the earth is bathed. The CMB will be studied in exquisite detail by the Planck satellite, which was launched in 2009. We hope to be at the forefront of interpreting the Planck data in the hope of pinning down which of the various theories of the early universe are ruled out and which remain viable. The deficiencies of the Standard Model extend still further for it does not explain the amount nor even the existence of ordinary matter. Our scientists will use this to constrain possible physics beyond the Standard Model and to do that they need to master the dynamics of the Universe shortly after the end of inflation. Last but not least, we hope to understand better the mysterious 'Dark Energy' that drives the current and future acceleration of the Universe: perhaps it is because Einstein's theory of gravity is not quite right and that is something we will explore.
Organisations
Publications
Dulat S
(2016)
New parton distribution functions from a global analysis of quantum chromodynamics
in Physical Review D
Shepherd B
(2016)
Dyons and dyonic black holes in su ( N ) Einstein-Yang-Mills theory in anti-de Sitter spacetime
in Physical Review D
Ambrus V
(2016)
1st Karl Schwarzschild Meeting on Gravitational Physics
De Bruck C
(2016)
Disformally coupled inflation
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Battye R
(2016)
Approximation of the potential in scalar field dark energy models
in Physical Review D
Mazumdar A
(2016)
Nonperturbative overproduction of axionlike particles via derivative interactions
in Physical Review D
Akiba K
(2016)
LHC forward physics
in Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics
Lyth D
(2016)
The History of the Universe
Ángeles Martínez R
(2016)
Ordering Multiple Soft Gluon Emissions.
in Physical review letters
McDonald J
(2016)
Nonminimally coupled inflation with initial conditions from a preinflation anamorphic contracting era
in Physical Review D
Dimopoulos K
(2016)
How thermal inflation can save minimal hybrid inflation in supergravity
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
McDonald J
(2016)
Warm dark matter via ultra-violet freeze-in: reheating temperature and non-thermal distribution for fermionic Higgs portal dark matter
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Nolan B
(2016)
On the stability of dyons and dyonic black holes in Einstein-Yang-Mills theory
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Alekhin S
(2016)
A facility to search for hidden particles at the CERN SPS: the SHiP physics case
in Reports on Progress in Physics
Edholm J
(2016)
Behavior of the Newtonian potential for ghost-free gravity and singularity free gravity
in Physical Review D
Winstanley E
(2016)
1st Karl Schwarzschild Meeting on Gravitational Physics
Barman R
(2016)
Study of MSSM heavy Higgs bosons decaying into charginos and neutralinos
in Physical Review D
Dasgupta M
(2016)
Improved jet substructure methods: Y-splitter and variants with grooming
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Kimura T
(2016)
Nonlocal N = 1 $$ \mathcal{N}=1 $$ supersymmetry
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Awasthi R
(2016)
Implications of the diboson excess for neutrinoless double beta decay and lepton flavor violation in TeV scale left-right symmetric model
in Physical Review D
Ambrus V
(2016)
Rotating fermions inside a cylindrical boundary
in Physical Review D
Ponglertsakul S
(2016)
Stability of gravitating charged-scalar solitons in a cavity
in Physical Review D
Dickinson R
(2016)
Probabilities and signalling in quantum field theory
Biswas T
(2016)
Gravitational theories with stable (anti-)de Sitter backgrounds
Dimopoulos K
(2016)
Active galaxies can make axionic dark energy
in Astroparticle Physics
Dimopoulos K
(2016)
Modelling inflation with a power-law approach to the inflationary plateau
in Physical Review D
Teimouri A
(2016)
Generalised boundary terms for higher derivative theories of gravity
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Mazumdar A
(2016)
Constraints on variations in inflaton decay rate from modulated preheating
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Dasgupta M
(2016)
Jet shapes for boosted jet two-prong decays from first-principles
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Van De Bruck C
(2016)
Higgs inflation with a Gauss-Bonnet term in the Jordan frame
in Physical Review D
Mazumdar A
(2016)
Nonthermal axion dark radiation and constraints
in Physical Review D
Baxter J
(2016)
On the stability of soliton and hairy black hole solutions of ( N ) Einstein-Yang-Mills theory with a negative cosmological constant
in Journal of Mathematical Physics
Abel P
(2016)
Vacuum for a massless quantum scalar field outside a collapsing shell in anti-de Sitter space-time
in General Relativity and Gravitation
Biswas T
(2016)
At the Frontier of Spacetime
Dempsey D
(2016)
Waves and null congruences in a draining bathtub
in International Journal of Modern Physics D
Dev P
(2016)
Flavour Covariant Formalism for Resonant Leptogenesis
in Nuclear and Particle Physics Proceedings
Van De Bruck C
(2016)
Reheating in Gauss-Bonnet-coupled inflation
in Physical Review D
Van De Bruck C
(2016)
Running of the running and entropy perturbations during inflation
in Physical Review D
Dasgupta M
(2016)
Inclusive jet spectrum for small-radius jets
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Ángeles-Martínez R
(2016)
Ordering multiple soft gluon emissions
Pilaftsis A
(2016)
Diphoton signatures from heavy axion decays at the CERN Large Hadron Collider
in Physical Review D
Salvio A
(2016)
Higgs stability and the 750 GeV diphoton excess
in Physics Letters B
Dickinson R
(2016)
Probabilities and signalling in quantum field theory
in Physical Review D
Adhikari R
(2017)
A White Paper on keV sterile neutrino Dark Matter
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Ponglertsakul S
(2017)
Black hole solutions in Einstein-charged scalar field theory
Bezrukov F
(2017)
Hiding an elephant: heavy sterile neutrino with large mixing angle does not contradict cosmology
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Ambru? V
(2017)
Thermal expectation values of fermions on anti-de Sitter space-time
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Choudhury A
(2017)
Blind Spots for Direct Detection with Simplified DM Models and the LHC
in Universe
Description | Progress on many fronts towards a better understanding of the universe, by developing theoretical models constrained by data from the LHC and cosmology experiments such as Planck. |
Exploitation Route | By continued research. |
Sectors | Education |
Description | Researchers supported by this award have been very active in outreach activities for the general public, schools and scientists from other fields. |
First Year Of Impact | 2014 |
Sector | Education |
Impact Types | Cultural,Societal |