Theoretical Particle Physics Research
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Oxford
Department Name: Oxford Physics
Abstract
Our overall aim is to elucidate the nature of matter and its fundamental interactions via a variety of phenomenological and theoretical studies. Of crucial importance will be the new results coming from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. The proposed research will improve our ability to predict the effects of the strong interactions (QCD) on the processes that will be studied at the LHC and develop efficient methods to determine the properties of any new states of matter discovered there. Both analytical and numerical methods will be used to study the properties of hadrons, strongly interacting bound states of quarks. Our research will seek to determine what lies beyond the Standard Model of the strong, weak and electromagnetic interactions, with the ultimate goal of providing a fully unified theory, including gravity. The most promising candidate theories will be studied, including Grand and superstring unification and theories with additional space dimensions. Laboratory, astrophysical and cosmological implications will be analysed to determine the most sensitive experimental tests of these theories. We hope these studies will lead to a complete understanding of the origin of mass, including an understanding of the quark, charged lepton and neutrino masses, mixing angles and CP violation, as well as of the nature of dark matter. In addition to having direct relevance to the LHC program, our research will have relevance to present and future neutrino and astroparticle experiments and to astrophysical and cosmological studies. In particular a concerted effort will be made to understand the nature of the dark matter and optimise strategies for detecting both direct and indirect signals. The implications of particle physics models for early universe processed such as inflation will also be studied.
Organisations
Publications
Aartsen M
(2016)
Searches for relativistic magnetic monopoles in IceCube
in The European Physical Journal C
Aartsen M
(2013)
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory Part I: Point Source Searches
Aartsen M
(2014)
Search for non-relativistic magnetic monopoles with IceCube
in The European Physical Journal C
Aartsen M
(2017)
The IceCube realtime alert system
in Astroparticle Physics
Aartsen M
(2016)
Neutrino oscillation studies with IceCube-DeepCore
in Nuclear Physics B
Aartsen M
(2016)
Search for astrophysical tau neutrinos in three years of IceCube data
in Physical Review D
Aartsen M
(2015)
THE DETECTION OF A SN IIn IN OPTICAL FOLLOW-UP OBSERVATIONS OF ICECUBE NEUTRINO EVENTS
in The Astrophysical Journal
Aartsen M
(2013)
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory Part III: Cosmic Rays
Aartsen M
(2016)
Characterization of the atmospheric muon flux in IceCube
in Astroparticle Physics
Aartsen M
(2015)
Determining neutrino oscillation parameters from atmospheric muon neutrino disappearance with three years of IceCube DeepCore data
in Physical Review D
Aartsen M
(2017)
PINGU: a vision for neutrino and particle physics at the South Pole
in Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics
Aartsen M
(2013)
Measurement of Atmospheric Neutrino Oscillations with IceCube
in Physical Review Letters
Aartsen M
(2016)
AN ALL-SKY SEARCH FOR THREE FLAVORS OF NEUTRINOS FROM GAMMA-RAY BURSTS WITH THE ICECUBE NEUTRINO OBSERVATORY
in The Astrophysical Journal
Aartsen M
(2014)
Multimessenger search for sources of gravitational waves and high-energy neutrinos: Initial results for LIGO-Virgo and IceCube
in Physical Review D
Aartsen M
(2013)
PINGU Sensitivity to the Neutrino Mass Hierarchy
Aartsen M
(2014)
Improvement in fast particle track reconstruction with robust statistics
in Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment
Aartsen M
(2013)
Probing the origin of cosmic rays with extremely high energy neutrinos using the IceCube Observatory
in Physical Review D
Aartsen M
(2013)
Measurement of the Atmospheric ? e Flux in IceCube
in Physical Review Letters
Aartsen M
(2020)
Neutrinos below 100 TeV from the southern sky employing refined veto techniques to IceCube data
in Astroparticle Physics
Aartsen M
(2013)
OBSERVATION OF COSMIC-RAY ANISOTROPY WITH THE ICETOP AIR SHOWER ARRAY
in The Astrophysical Journal
Aartsen M
(2014)
Search for a diffuse flux of astrophysical muon neutrinos with the IceCube 59-string configuration
in Physical Review D
Aartsen M
(2017)
Search for Astrophysical Sources of Neutrinos Using Cascade Events in IceCube
in The Astrophysical Journal
Aartsen M
(2013)
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory Part III: Cosmic Rays
Aartsen M
(2016)
THE SEARCH FOR TRANSIENT ASTROPHYSICAL NEUTRINO EMISSION WITH ICECUBE-DEEPCORE
in The Astrophysical Journal
Aartsen M
(2016)
All-flavour search for neutrinos from dark matter annihilations in the Milky Way with IceCube/DeepCore
in The European Physical Journal C
Aartsen M
(2014)
Search for neutrino-induced particle showers with IceCube-40
in Physical Review D
Aartsen M
(2013)
Search for Galactic PeV gamma rays with the IceCube Neutrino Observatory
in Physical Review D
Aartsen M
(2017)
Search for sterile neutrino mixing using three years of IceCube DeepCore data
in Physical Review D
Aartsen M
(2014)
Observation of the cosmic-ray shadow of the Moon with IceCube
in Physical Review D
Aartsen M
(2016)
SEARCH FOR SOURCES OF HIGH-ENERGY NEUTRONS WITH FOUR YEARS OF DATA FROM THE ICETOP DETECTOR
in The Astrophysical Journal
Aartsen M
(2013)
First Observation of PeV-Energy Neutrinos with IceCube
in Physical Review Letters
Aartsen M
(2015)
Searches for small-scale anisotropies from neutrino point sources with three years of IceCube data
in Astroparticle Physics
Aartsen M
(2014)
Energy reconstruction methods in the IceCube neutrino telescope
in Journal of Instrumentation
Aartsen M
(2013)
Measurement of South Pole ice transparency with the IceCube LED calibration system
in Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment
Aartsen M
(2013)
Probing the origin of cosmic-rays with extremely high
energy neutrinos using the IceCube Observatory
in Phys.Rev.
Aartsen M
(2015)
SEARCHES FOR TIME-DEPENDENT NEUTRINO SOURCES WITH ICECUBE DATA FROM 2008 TO 2012
in The Astrophysical Journal
Aartsen M
(2015)
A COMBINED MAXIMUM-LIKELIHOOD ANALYSIS OF THE HIGH-ENERGY ASTROPHYSICAL NEUTRINO FLUX MEASURED WITH ICECUBE
in The Astrophysical Journal
Aartsen M
(2015)
Measurement of the Atmospheric ? e Spectrum with IceCube
in Physical Review D
Aartsen M
(2016)
OBSERVATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF A COSMIC MUON NEUTRINO FLUX FROM THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE USING SIX YEARS OF ICECUBE DATA
in The Astrophysical Journal
Aartsen M
(2013)
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory Part I: Point Source
Searches
Aartsen M
(2016)
Improved limits on dark matter annihilation in the Sun with the 79-string IceCube detector and implications for supersymmetry
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
| Description | Our overall aim is to elucidate the nature of matter and its fundamental interactions via a variety of phenomenological and theoretical studies. It was anticipated in the proposal that new results coming from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN would be of crucial importance and the proposed research was intended to improve our ability to predict the effects of the strong interactions (QCD) on the processes that will be studied at the LHC and develop efficient methods to determine the properties of any new states of matter discovered there. This expectation was more than adequately fulfilled with the discovery of the Higgs boson - responsible for giving mass to all known fundamental particles in the Standard Model of the strong, weak and electromagnetic interactions. Our research also seeks to determine what lies beyond the Standard Model, with the ultimate goal of providing a fully unified theory, including gravity. Experimental progress here has not been as dramatic, in fact the Standard Model has been amazingly successful at explaining all laboratory measurements. Nevertheless there must be new physics, if only to account for the observed universe with its asymmetry between matter and antimatter, preponderance of dark over luminous matter, and inhomogeneities which grow under gravity into the large-scale structure of galaxies, clusters and superclusters ... none of which can be explained in the framework of the Standard Model. We have continued to make progress in studying promising candidate theories, including unified theories and theories with additional space dimensions. |
| Exploitation Route | Our work forms part of a collective effort by theoretical physicists all over the world - each generation builds on the work of those who came before. |
| Sectors | Education |
| URL | http://www2.physics.ox.ac.uk/research/particle-theory |
| Description | An innovative website to explain `Why String Theory?' (http://whystringtheory.com/) has received over 100,000 unique visitors. |
| Sector | Education |
| Impact Types | Cultural |
| Description | Consolidated grant |
| Amount | £717,699 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | ST/P000770/1 |
| Organisation | Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2017 |
| End | 09/2020 |