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.
Publications
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)
PINGU Sensitivity to the Neutrino Mass Hierarchy
Aartsen M
(2017)
The IceCube realtime alert system
in Astroparticle Physics
Aartsen M
(2013)
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory Part I: Point Source
Searches
Aartsen M
(2017)
Search for neutrinos from dark matter self-annihilations in the center of the Milky Way with 3 years of IceCube/DeepCore IceCube Collaboration
in The European Physical Journal C
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
(2015)
Measurement of the Atmospheric ? e Spectrum with IceCube
in Physical Review D
Aartsen M
(2013)
PINGU Sensitivity to the Neutrino Mass Hierarchy
Aartsen M
(2013)
Measurement of the cosmic ray energy spectrum with IceTop-73
in Physical Review D
Aartsen MG
(2014)
Observation of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos in three years of IceCube data.
in Physical review letters
Aartsen MG
(2015)
Flavor Ratio of Astrophysical Neutrinos above 35 TeV in IceCube.
in Physical review letters
Aartsen MG
(2013)
Search for dark matter annihilations in the sun with the 79-string IceCube detector.
in Physical review letters
Aartsen MG
(2016)
Searches for Sterile Neutrinos with the IceCube Detector.
in Physical review letters
Aartsen MG
(2013)
First observation of PeV-energy neutrinos with IceCube.
in Physical review letters
Aartsen MG
(2016)
Constraints on Ultrahigh-Energy Cosmic-Ray Sources from a Search for Neutrinos above 10 PeV with IceCube.
in Physical review letters
Aartsen MG
(2017)
Measurement of the ? µ energy spectrum with IceCube-79: IceCube Collaboration.
in The European physical journal. C, Particles and fields
Aartsen MG
(2013)
Measurement of atmospheric neutrino oscillations with IceCube.
in Physical review letters
Aartsen MG
(2015)
Development of a general analysis and unfolding scheme and its application to measure the energy spectrum of atmospheric neutrinos with IceCube: IceCube Collaboration.
in The European physical journal. C, Particles and fields
Aartsen MG
(2013)
Measurement of the atmospheric ?e flux in IceCube.
in Physical review letters
Abbasi R
(2011)
Limits on neutrino emission from gamma-ray bursts with the 40 string IceCube detector.
in Physical review letters
Abbasi R
(2013)
All-particle cosmic ray energy spectrum measured with 26 IceTop stations
in Astroparticle Physics
Abbasi R
(2011)
Measurement of the atmospheric neutrino energy spectrum from 100 GeV to 400 TeV with IceCube
in Physical Review D
Abbasi R
(2012)
NEUTRINO ANALYSIS OF THE 2010 SEPTEMBER CRAB NEBULA FLARE AND TIME-INTEGRATED CONSTRAINTS ON NEUTRINO EMISSION FROM THE CRAB USING ICECUBE
in The Astrophysical Journal
Abbasi R
(2012)
Background studies for acoustic neutrino detection at the South Pole
in Astroparticle Physics
Abbasi R
(2013)
Cosmic ray composition and energy spectrum from 1-30PeV using the 40-string configuration of IceTop and IceCube
in Astroparticle Physics
Abbasi R
(2011)
SWIFT Follow-Up of IceCube neutrino multiplets
Abbasi R
(2011)
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory I: Point Source
Searches
Abbasi R
(2012)
The design and performance of IceCube DeepCore
in Astroparticle Physics
Abbasi R
(2011)
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory III: Cosmic Rays
Abbasi R
(2011)
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory III: Cosmic Rays
Abbasi R
(2012)
Search for ultrahigh-energy tau neutrinos with IceCube
in Physical Review D
Abbasi R
(2013)
Lateral distribution of muons in IceCube cosmic ray events
in Physical Review D
Abbasi R
(2011)
Search for neutrino-induced cascades with five years of AMANDA data
in Astroparticle Physics
Abbasi R
(2011)
OBSERVATION OF ANISOTROPY IN THE ARRIVAL DIRECTIONS OF GALACTIC COSMIC RAYS AT MULTIPLE ANGULAR SCALES WITH IceCube
in The Astrophysical Journal
Abbasi R
(2012)
Searching for soft relativistic jets in core-collapse supernovae with the IceCube optical follow-up program
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Abbasi R
(2011)
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory V: Future
Developments
Abbasi R
(2012)
Multiyear search for dark matter annihilations in the Sun with the AMANDA-II and IceCube detectors
in Physical Review D
Abbasi R
(2011)
Search for dark matter from the Galactic halo with the IceCube Neutrino Telescope
in Physical Review D
Abbasi R
(2013)
An improved method for measuring muon energy using the truncated mean of dE/dx
in Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment
Abbasi R
(2011)
Constraints on the extremely-high energy cosmic neutrino flux with the IceCube 2008-2009 data
in Physical Review D
Abbasi R
(2011)
TIME-INTEGRATED SEARCHES FOR POINT-LIKE SOURCES OF NEUTRINOS WITH THE 40-STRING IceCube DETECTOR
in The Astrophysical Journal
Abbasi R
(2013)
Search for relativistic magnetic monopoles with IceCube
in Physical Review D
| 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 |