The Lancaster, Manchester, Sheffield Consortium for Fundamental Physics: Particle Physics, From the Universe to the LHC
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.
The discovery at the LHC of a Higgs boson is a major milestone in our quest to understand the origin of mass. It is certainly not, however, the whole story. The LHC experiments are working hard to measure the properties of the particle they have discovered. They are also searching for new particles such as those predicted by supersymmetry. If supersymmetry is discovered then it offers the hope 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, a very complicated environment, usually 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 insufficient 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 tiny quantum fluctuations that cause 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 is to leave a tiny imprint on the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB), a faint hum of microwave radiation in which the Universe is bathed. The CMB is being studied in exquisite detail by the Planck satellite, which was launched in 2009. We are 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: one possibility is that it is because Einstein's theory of gravity is not quite right and that is something we will explore.
The discovery at the LHC of a Higgs boson is a major milestone in our quest to understand the origin of mass. It is certainly not, however, the whole story. The LHC experiments are working hard to measure the properties of the particle they have discovered. They are also searching for new particles such as those predicted by supersymmetry. If supersymmetry is discovered then it offers the hope 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, a very complicated environment, usually 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 insufficient 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 tiny quantum fluctuations that cause 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 is to leave a tiny imprint on the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB), a faint hum of microwave radiation in which the Universe is bathed. The CMB is being studied in exquisite detail by the Planck satellite, which was launched in 2009. We are 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: one possibility is that it is because Einstein's theory of gravity is not quite right and that is something we will explore.
Planned Impact
See the attached "Pathways to Impact" document for details.
This project has impact beyond the international scientific community mainly through the training of highly skilled graduate students and postdoctoral researchers and through extensive "outreach" activities of various kinds aimed at engaging directly with the general public, school children, teachers, policy makers and the media. Undergraduate teaching is also impacted beneficially by our research.
This project has impact beyond the international scientific community mainly through the training of highly skilled graduate students and postdoctoral researchers and through extensive "outreach" activities of various kinds aimed at engaging directly with the general public, school children, teachers, policy makers and the media. Undergraduate teaching is also impacted beneficially by our research.
Organisations
Publications
De Bruck C
(2014)
Power spectra beyond the slow roll approximation in theories with non-canonical kinetic terms
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Carr B
(2018)
Primordial black hole formation during slow reheating after inflation
in Physical Review D
Dimopoulos K
(2019)
Primordial black holes from thermal inflation
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Choudhury S
(2014)
Primordial blackholes and gravitational waves for an inflection-point model of inflation
in Physics Letters B
Dickinson R
(2016)
Probabilities and signalling in quantum field theory
in Physical Review D
Mifsud J
(2017)
Probing the imprints of generalized interacting dark energy on the growth of perturbations
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Dev P
(2016)
Probing the scale of new physics by Advanced LIGO/VIRGO
in Physical Review D
BĂ©langer G
(2015)
Probing U(1) extensions of the MSSM at the LHC Run I and in dark matter searches
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Belyaev A
(2018)
Problems with Higgsplosion
in Physical Review D
Roszkowski L
(2015)
Prospects for dark matter searches in the pMSSM
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Barausse E
(2020)
Prospects for fundamental physics with LISA
in General Relativity and Gravitation
Banerjee S
(2015)
Prospects of heavy neutrino searches at future lepton colliders
in Physical Review D
Branchina V
(2018)
Protecting the stability of the electroweak vacuum from Planck-scale gravitational effects
in Physical Review D
Mazumdar A
(2014)
Quantifying the reheating temperature of the universe
in Nuclear Physics B
Finn K
(2021)
Quantizing the Eisenhart lift
in Physical Review D
Kanti P
(2015)
Quantum Aspects of Black Holes
Calmet X
(2014)
Quantum Black Holes
Morley T
(2020)
Quantum field theory on global anti-de Sitter space-time with Robin boundary conditions
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Balakumar V
(2020)
Quantum superradiance on static black hole space-times
in Physics Letters B
Darvishi N
(2019)
Quartic coupling unification in the maximally symmetric 2HDM
in Physical Review D
Percival J
(2020)
Quasinormal modes of massive vector fields on the Kerr spacetime
in Physical Review D
Dimopoulos K
(2021)
Quintessential inflation in Palatini f ( R ) gravity
in Physical Review D
Dimopoulos K
(2019)
Quintessential inflation with a trap and axionic dark matter
in Physical Review D
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
Candia Da Silva P
(2020)
Radiative neutrino masses in the ? R MSSM
in Physical Review D
Battye R
(2021)
Radio line properties of axion dark matter conversion in neutron stars
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Dolan S
(2017)
Rainbow scattering in the gravitational field of a compact object
in Physical Review D
Stratton T
(2019)
Rainbow scattering of gravitational plane waves by a compact body
in Physical Review D
Ashoorioon A
(2014)
Reconciliation of high energy scale models of inflation with Planck
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
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
Ambru? V
(2015)
Renormalised fermion vacuum expectation values on anti-de Sitter space-time
in Physics Letters B
Choudhury A
(2016)
Revisiting the exclusion limits from direct chargino-neutralino production at the LHC
in Physical Review D
Ambrus V
(2016)
Rotating fermions inside a cylindrical boundary
in Physical Review D
Ambrus V
(2014)
Rotating quantum states
in Physics Letters B
Van De Bruck C
(2016)
Running of the running and entropy perturbations during inflation
in Physical Review D
Bezrukov F
(2020)
Scalar induced resonant sterile neutrino production in the early Universe
in Physical Review D
Sloan D
(2021)
Scale Symmetry and Friction
in Symmetry
Crispino L
(2015)
Scattering from charged black holes and supergravity
in Physical Review D
Ould El Hadj M
(2020)
Scattering from compact objects: Regge poles and the complex angular momentum method
in Physical Review D
Leite L
(2019)
Scattering of massless bosonic fields by Kerr black holes: On-axis incidence
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
Alimena J
(2020)
Searching for long-lived particles beyond the Standard Model at the Large Hadron Collider
in Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics
Wardell B
(2014)
Self-force via Green functions and worldline integration
in Physical Review D
Stratton T
(2020)
Series reduction method for scattering of planar waves by Kerr black holes
in Physical Review D
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
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 |