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
Casals M
(2013)
Quantization of fermions on Kerr space-time
in Physical Review D
Kanti P
(2015)
Quantum Aspects of Black Holes
Calmet X
(2014)
Quantum Black Holes
Dimopoulos K
(2017)
Quintessential inflation with a-attractors
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Dedes A
(2017)
Radiative light dark matter
in Physical Review D
Dolan S
(2017)
Rainbow scattering in the gravitational field of a compact object
in Physical Review D
Ashoorioon A
(2014)
Reconciliation of high energy scale models of inflation with Planck
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Ashoorioon A
(2013)
Reconciliation of High Energy Scale Models of Inflation with Planck
Van De Bruck C
(2017)
Reheating and preheating in the simplest extension of Starobinsky inflation
in International Journal of Modern Physics D
Van De Bruck C
(2016)
Reheating in Gauss-Bonnet-coupled inflation
in Physical Review D
Bezrukov F
(2014)
Relic gravity waves and 7 keV dark matter from a GeV scale inflaton
in Physics Letters B
Ambru? V
(2015)
Renormalised fermion vacuum expectation values on anti-de Sitter space-time
in Physics Letters B
Choi K
(2013)
Review of axino dark matter
in Journal of the Korean Physical Society
Choudhury A
(2016)
Revisiting the exclusion limits from direct chargino-neutralino production at the LHC
in Physical Review D
Ambrus V
(2013)
Rotating fermions
Ambrus V
(2016)
Rotating fermions inside a cylindrical boundary
in Physical Review D
Ambrus V
(2014)
Rotating quantum states
in Physics Letters B
Ambrus V
(2014)
Rotating quantum states
Van De Bruck C
(2016)
Running of the running and entropy perturbations during inflation
in Physical Review D
Dolan S
(2013)
Scattering by a draining bathtub vortex
in Physical Review D
Crispino L
(2015)
Scattering from charged black holes and supergravity
in Physical Review D
Van De Bruck C
(2018)
Searching for dark matter-dark energy interactions: Going beyond the conformal case
in Physical Review D
Casals M
(2013)
Self-force and Green function in Schwarzschild spacetime via quasinormal modes and branch cut
in Physical Review D
Wardell B
(2014)
Self-force via Green functions and worldline integration
in Physical Review D
Dolan S
(2013)
Self-force via m -mode regularization and 2 + 1 D evolution. III. Gravitational field on Schwarzschild spacetime
in Physical Review D
Bezrukov F
(2015)
Semiclassical S-matrix for black holes
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Mazumdar A
(2012)
Separable and non-separable multi-field inflation and large non-Gaussianity
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Dimopoulos K
(2014)
Shaft Inflation
Dimopoulos K
(2014)
Shaft inflation
in Physics Letters B
McDonald J
(2015)
Signatures of Planck corrections in a spiralling axion inflation model
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Van De Bruck C
(2015)
Simplest extension of Starobinsky inflation
in Physical Review D
Munir S
(2013)
Simultaneous enhancement in ? ? , b b ¯ and t + t - rates in the NMSSM with nearly degenerate scalar and pseudoscalar Higgs bosons
in Physical Review D
McDonald J
(2012)
Simultaneous Generation of WIMP Miracle-like Densities of Baryons and Dark Matter
in Journal of Physics: Conference Series
Wang L
(2013)
Small non-Gaussianity and dipole asymmetry in the cosmic microwave background
in Physical Review D
Dasgupta M
(2015)
Small-radius jets to all orders in QCD
in Journal of High Energy Physics
MartÃnez R
(2018)
Soft gluon evolution and non-global logarithms
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Ponglertsakul S
(2016)
Solitons and hairy black holes in Einstein-non-Abelian-Proca theory in anti-de Sitter spacetime
in Physical Review D
Akcay S
(2017)
Spin-orbit precession for eccentric black hole binaries at first order in the mass ratio
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Dolan S
(2017)
Spinning Black Holes May Grow Hair
in Physics
Dolan S
(2015)
Stability of black holes in Einstein-charged scalar field theory in a cavity
in Physical Review D
Ponglertsakul S
(2016)
Stability of gravitating charged-scalar solitons in a cavity
in Physical Review D
Van De Bruck C
(2015)
Stabilizing the Planck mass shortly after inflation
in Physical Review D
Dolan S
(2016)
Stable photon orbits in stationary axisymmetric electrovacuum spacetimes
in Physical Review D
Chen C
(2014)
Standard model explanation of the ultrahigh energy neutrino events at IceCube
in Physical Review D
DIMOPOULOS K
(2012)
STATISTICAL ANISOTROPY AND THE VECTOR CURVATON PARADIGM
in International Journal of Modern Physics D
Dimopoulos K
(2011)
Statistical Anisotropy from Vector Curvaton in D-brane Inflation
Dimopoulos K
(2013)
Statistical anisotropy from vector curvaton in D-brane inflation
in Nuclear Physics B
Dimopoulos K
(2018)
Steep eternal inflation and the swampland
in Physical Review D
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 |