Particle Theory at the Tait Institute
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Edinburgh
Department Name: Sch of Physics and Astronomy
Abstract
There are two types of fundamental forces in Nature: Those responsible for particle interactions at subatomic scales and those responsible for the large scale structure of the universe. The former is described by Quantum Field Theories (QFT) such as the Standard Model. Currently, our understanding of Nature at the most fundamental level is at the crossroads. Last year, the LHC at CERN collided protons at higher energies than ever before, and this year there should be sufficient collisions to begin to explore physics at the TeV scale. Nobody yet knows what these data will reveal. However, there are very good reasons to believe that something fundamentally new will eventually be discovered, which might transform our understanding of basic physics, making the next few years the most exciting time for a generation or more. The discoveries could be new types of particle, such as the Higgs boson, new kinds of symmetries such as supersymmetry, or indeed something even more dramatic such as extra dimensions or mini black holes. Our rolling programme of research in Particle Physics Theory is designed to be at the forefront of these new discoveries: indeed Peter Higgs himself is Emeritus Professor here. Specifically, we provide theoretical calculations, using pen and paper, and the most powerful supercomputers, of both the huge number of background processes to be seen at LHC due to known physics, and the tiny signals expected in various models of new physics, in order to discriminate between signal and background, and thus maximise the discovery potential of the LHC. In parallel, we will attempt to understand the more complete picture of all the forces of Nature that may begin to emerge. The fundamental force responsible for large scale structure is described Einstein's General Theory of Relativity (GR). During the last three decades, string theory has emerged as a conceptually rich theoretical framework reconciling both GR and QFT. The low-energy limit of String Theory is supergravity (SUGRA), a nontrivial extension of GR in which the universe is described by a spacetime with additional geometric data. Members of the group have pioneered approaches to deriving observable cosmological consequences of String Theory, to studying how the geometrical notions on which GR is predicated change at very small ('stringy') distance scales, and the systematic classification of SUGRA backgrounds. The group is also engaged in using these theories to improve calculations in existing field theories. In summary, our research will impinge on both theoretical and computational aspects relevant to probing the phenomenology of incoming LHC data, and will also encompass a wide range of topics in QFT and gravitational aspects of String Theory, impinging on cosmology, particle physics and on the very nature of String Theory itself.
Planned Impact
The Institute is involved in outreach activities such as talks at secondary schools and University Open Day events and for organizations such as the IOP. These activities will continue with plans for increase through greater personal initiative by Institute members as well as through cooperation with organizations including the University and Particle Physics 4 Scottish Schools. Institute members also have had interaction with the popular science press through offering expertise opinions for articles, having our own work covered, and being involved in press releases by the University, STFC and IBM. We have a unique task of developing and supporting public interest in the work of our retired Institute member and Professor Emeritus Peter Higgs. We receive information almost on a daily basis of press coverage of him or the Higgs boson by media organizations all over the world. We also host media and television organizations who interview Peter Higgs.We keep a compilation of this media coverage, with more than 1000 media citations since 2008. We will continue this support activity, which will be most essential in the coming years, with anticipation of the discovery of the Higgs Boson at the LHC. We have continued to impact the high performance computing industry and consequently all of scientific computing in a quite unique way. During the last three years the novel partitioning algorithm invented by us in our QCDOC design has been adopted by Fujitsu for their billion dollar national K-computer project. We have jointly designed the memory prefetch engine for the next generation BlueGene/Q supercomputer chip with IBM Research under a formal Collaboration Agreement, thus participating directly in a $400M dollar project. Prototypes have been assembled and UoE staff travelled to IBM to assist in the bringup and debug of the design. An STFC funded 800Tflop/s prototype computer will be procured and installed in Edinburgh for UKQCD as part of the DiRAC facility.
Organisations
Publications
Frison J.
(2013)
The kaon bag parameter at physical mass
in Proceedings of Science
Jüttner A.
(2014)
Charm physics with physical light and strange quarks using domain wall fermions
in Proceedings of Science
DeBellis J
(2013)
Reduced Chern-Simons quiver theories and cohomological 3-algebra models
in Progress of Theoretical and Experimental Physics
Cirio L
(2014)
Instantons and vortices on noncommutative toric varieties
in Reviews in Mathematical Physics
SÄMANN C
(2013)
GROUPOIDS, LOOP SPACES AND QUANTIZATION OF 2-PLECTIC MANIFOLDS
in Reviews in Mathematical Physics
Andersen J
(2011)
Discovering Technicolor
in The European Physical Journal Plus
Ball RD
(2016)
A determination of the charm content of the proton: The NNPDF Collaboration.
in The European physical journal. C, Particles and fields
FLAG Working Group
(2014)
Review of lattice results concerning low-energy particle physics.
in The European physical journal. C, Particles and fields
RBC Collaboration
(2012)
Domain Wall QCD with Near-Physical Pions
Figueroa-O'Farrill J
(2015)
Homogeneous M2 duals
Hustler N
(2015)
(M-theory-)Killing spinors on symmetric spaces
Bali G
(2013)
The meson spectrum in large-N QCD
Figueroa-O'Farrill J
(2013)
The homogeneity theorem for supergravity backgrounds II: the six-dimensional theories
Balasubramanian V
(2013)
A strongly coupled zig-zag transition
Sivalingam K
(2012)
Kaon semileptonic decays near the physical point
Johnstone M
(2013)
Near-Extremal Vanishing Horizon AdS5 Black Holes and Their CFT Duals
Frison J
(2014)
The Kaon Bag Parameter at Physical Mass
Boyle P
(2014)
Hierarchically deflated conjugate gradient
Balasubramanian V
(2014)
Black Holes, Entanglement and Random Matrices
RBC
(2014)
Domain wall QCD with physical quark masses
Johnstone M
(2013)
Extremal Black Holes and First Law of Thermodynamics
Simón J
(2013)
Supersymmetric Gravity and Black Holes
Ball R
(2015)
Intrinsic charm in a matched general-mass scheme
Boyle P
(2012)
The BlueGene/Q supercomputer
Frison J
(2013)
The Kaon Bag Parameter at Physical Mass
Figueroa-O'Farrill J
(2012)
The homogeneity theorem for supergravity backgrounds
Bali G
(2013)
Mesons in large-N QCD
Figueroa-O'Farrill J
(2011)
Symmetric M-Theory Backgrounds
Figueroa-O'Farrill J
(2013)
Supersymmetry of hyperbolic monopoles
Lashkari N
(2014)
From state distinguishability to effective bulk locality
Figueroa-O'Farrill J
(2015)
Sasakian manifolds and M-theory
Lytle A
(2013)
Kaon Mixing Beyond the Standard Model
Figueroa-O'Farrill J
(2012)
Symmetric backgrounds of type IIB supergravity
Lytle A
(2014)
Kaon Mixing Beyond the Standard Model
Description | Lots of interesting particle physics |
Exploitation Route | Lots of ways |
Sectors | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Education |
Description | Panel discussion on machine learning and future HPC Intel HPC developer conference. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Invited as panel expert on future of HPC and machine learning by Intel at their annual HPC developer conference attended widely by Industry and research lab sector. Note, Boyle second from left in photograph on the Intel web page linked below. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
URL | https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/events/hpcdevcon/overview.html |
Description | Talk on MPI optimisation on Intel stand at Supercomputing 2017 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Decision influence: I Influenced Intel to modify, update and release optimisations to their MPI library for the Intel Omnipath interconnect. Coauthored a paper on this topic. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
URL | http://inspirehep.net/record/1636204 |
Description | Talks presented on this activity at Intel Xeon Phi User Group conferences. |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
Results and Impact | Presented work in several Intel Xeon Phi User Group meetings. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016,2017 |