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
(2017)
Search for Astrophysical Sources of Neutrinos Using Cascade Events in IceCube
in The Astrophysical Journal
Aartsen M
(2015)
SEARCH FOR PROMPT NEUTRINO EMISSION FROM GAMMA-RAY BURSTS WITH ICECUBE
in The Astrophysical Journal
Aartsen M
(2017)
The IceCube realtime alert system
in Astroparticle Physics
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
(2013)
Probing the origin of cosmic-rays with extremely high
energy neutrinos using the IceCube Observatory
in Phys.Rev.
Aartsen M
(2017)
Extending the Search for Muon Neutrinos Coincident with Gamma-Ray Bursts in IceCube Data
in The Astrophysical Journal
Aartsen M
(2017)
Search for sterile neutrino mixing using three years of IceCube DeepCore data
in Physical Review D
Aartsen M
(2016)
Search for astrophysical tau neutrinos in three years of IceCube data
in Physical Review D
Aartsen M
(2013)
IceCube search for dark matter annihilation in nearby galaxies and galaxy clusters
in Physical Review D
Aartsen M
(2015)
Searches for small-scale anisotropies from neutrino point sources with three years of IceCube data
in Astroparticle Physics
Aartsen M.G.
(2014)
Letter of Intent: The Precision IceCube Next Generation Upgrade (PINGU)
Aartsen M.G.
(2014)
IceCube-Gen2: A Vision for the Future of Neutrino Astronomy in Antarctica
Aartsen MG
(2013)
Measurement of atmospheric neutrino oscillations with IceCube.
in Physical review letters
Aartsen MG
(2017)
Measurement of the energy spectrum with IceCube-79: IceCube Collaboration.
in The European physical journal. C, Particles and fields
Aartsen MG
(2014)
Observation of high-energy astrophysical neutrinos in three years of IceCube data.
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
(2013)
First observation of PeV-energy neutrinos with IceCube.
in Physical review letters
Aartsen MG
(2016)
Searches for Sterile Neutrinos with the IceCube Detector.
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)
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory V: Future Developments
Abbasi R
(2011)
Search for neutrino-induced cascades with five years of AMANDA data
in Astroparticle Physics
Abbasi R
(2011)
Limits on neutrino emission from gamma-ray bursts with the 40 string IceCube detector.
in Physical review letters
Abbasi R
(2013)
Lateral distribution of muons in IceCube cosmic ray events
in Physical Review D
Abbasi R
(2011)
Search for a diffuse flux of astrophysical muon neutrinos with the IceCube 40-string detector
in Physical Review D
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)
SWIFT Follow-Up of IceCube neutrino multiplets
Abbasi R
(2011)
Search for dark matter from the Galactic halo with the IceCube Neutrino Telescope
in Physical Review D
Abbasi R
(2013)
All-particle cosmic ray energy spectrum measured with 26 IceTop stations
in Astroparticle Physics
Abbasi R
(2012)
Search for ultrahigh-energy tau neutrinos with IceCube
in Physical Review D
Abbasi R
(2012)
Background studies for acoustic neutrino detection at the South Pole
in Astroparticle Physics
Abbasi R
(2011)
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory III: Cosmic Rays
Abbasi R
(2011)
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory V: Future
Developments
Abbasi R
(2011)
Measurement of the atmospheric neutrino energy spectrum from 100 GeV to 400 TeV with IceCube
in Physical Review D
Abbasi R
(2011)
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory I: Point Source
Searches
Abbasi R
(2012)
TIME-DEPENDENT SEARCHES FOR POINT SOURCES OF NEUTRINOS WITH THE 40-STRING AND 22-STRING CONFIGURATIONS OF ICECUBE
in The Astrophysical Journal
Abbasi R
(2011)
Constraints on the extremely-high energy cosmic neutrino flux with the IceCube 2008-2009 data
in Physical Review D
Abbasi R
(2012)
Searching for soft relativistic jets in core-collapse supernovae with the IceCube optical follow-up program
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
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)
First search for atmospheric and extraterrestrial neutrino-induced cascades with the IceCube detector
in Physical Review D
Abbasi R
(2011)
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory III: Cosmic Rays
| 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 | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2017 |
| End | 09/2020 |