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
Gray J
(2013)
All complete intersection Calabi-Yau four-folds
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Hardy E
(2013)
Retrofitted natural supersymmetry from a U(1)
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Aartsen M
(2013)
PINGU Sensitivity to the Neutrino Mass Hierarchy
Hamilton K
(2013)
NNLOPS simulation of Higgs boson production
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Haisch U
(2013)
On the importance of loop-induced spin-independent interactions for dark matter direct detection
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Athenodorou A
(2013)
Closed flux tubes in higher representations and their string description in D=2+1 SU(N) gauge theories
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Abbasi R
(2013)
Lateral distribution of muons in IceCube cosmic ray events
in Physical Review D
Aartsen M
(2013)
OBSERVATION OF COSMIC-RAY ANISOTROPY WITH THE ICETOP AIR SHOWER ARRAY
in The Astrophysical Journal
Klaput M
(2013)
Heterotic Calabi-Yau compactifications with flux
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Aartsen MG
(2013)
Measurement of the atmospheric ?e flux in IceCube.
in Physical review letters
Aartsen M
(2013)
PINGU Sensitivity to the Neutrino Mass Hierarchy
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
(2013)
Search for relativistic magnetic monopoles with IceCube
in Physical Review D
Hamilton K
(2013)
Merging H/W/Z + 0 and 1 jet at NLO with no merging scale: a path to parton shower + NNLO matching
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Collaboration T
(2013)
Bounds on the density of sources of ultra-high energy cosmic rays from the Pierre Auger Observatory
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Klaput M
(2013)
Moduli stabilising in heterotic nearly Kähler compactifications
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Aartsen M
(2013)
Probing the origin of cosmic-rays with extremely high
energy neutrinos using the IceCube Observatory
in Phys.Rev.
Abbasi R
(2013)
All-particle cosmic ray energy spectrum measured with 26 IceTop stations
in Astroparticle Physics
Brod J
(2013)
Constraints on CP-violating Higgs couplings to the third generation
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Aartsen M
(2013)
IceCube search for dark matter annihilation in nearby galaxies and galaxy clusters
in Physical Review D
Aartsen MG
(2013)
Search for dark matter annihilations in the sun with the 79-string IceCube detector.
in Physical review letters
Aartsen MG
(2013)
First observation of PeV-energy neutrinos with IceCube.
in Physical review letters
Sarkar S
(2013)
Theory Summary: Very High Energy Cosmic Rays
in EPJ Web of Conferences
Aartsen M
(2013)
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory Part III: Cosmic Rays
Giasemidis G
(2013)
Aspects of dynamical dimensional reduction in multigraph ensembles of CDT
in Journal of Physics: Conference Series
Haisch U
(2013)
MSSM: cornered and correlated
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Haisch U
(2013)
QCD effects in mono-jet searches for dark matter
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Abbasi R
(2013)
Cosmic ray composition and energy spectrum from 1-30 PeV using the 40-string configuration of IceTop and IceCube
in Astroparticle Physics
Aartsen M
(2013)
SEARCH FOR TIME-INDEPENDENT NEUTRINO EMISSION FROM ASTROPHYSICAL SOURCES WITH 3 yr OF IceCube DATA
in The Astrophysical Journal
Jäger B
(2013)
Electroweak W+W- jj prodution at NLO in QCD matched with parton shower in the POWHEG-BOX
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Acharya B
(2013)
Introducing the CTA concept
in Astroparticle Physics
Abreu P
(2013)
Ultrahigh Energy Neutrinos at the Pierre Auger Observatory
in Advances in High Energy Physics
Aartsen M
(2013)
Search for Galactic PeV gamma rays with the IceCube Neutrino Observatory
in Physical Review D
Frandsen M
(2013)
The unbearable lightness of being: CDMS versus XENON
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Aartsen M
(2013)
Measurement of the cosmic ray energy spectrum with IceTop-73
in Physical Review D
Aartsen M
(2013)
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory Part I: Point Source Searches
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
Haisch U
(2013)
The impact of heavy-quark loops on LHC dark-matter searches
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Bursa F
(2013)
SO(2N) and SU(N) gauge theories in 2 + 1 dimensions
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Aartsen M
(2013)
The IceCube Neutrino Observatory Part III: Cosmic Rays
Abbasi R
(2013)
IceTop: The surface component of IceCube
in Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment
IceCube Collaboration
(2013)
Evidence for high-energy extraterrestrial neutrinos at the IceCube detector.
in Science (New York, N.Y.)
Aartsen M
(2013)
Probing the origin of cosmic rays with extremely high energy neutrinos using the IceCube Observatory
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 | 10/2017 |
End | 09/2020 |