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
Charbonnier A
(2011)
Dark matter profiles and annihilation in dwarf spheroidal galaxies: prospectives for present and future ?-ray observatories - I. The classical dwarf spheroidal galaxies ?-ray from dark matter annihilation in dSphs
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Kahlhoefer F
(2014)
Colliding clusters and dark matter self-interactions
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Colin J
(2011)
Probing the anisotropic local Universe and beyond with SNe Ia data Probing the anisotropic Universe with SNe Ia
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Colin J
(2017)
High-redshift radio galaxies and divergence from the CMB dipole
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
P. Conlon J
(2020)
Moduli Stabilisation and the Holographic Swampland
in Letters in High Energy Physics
Mertsch P
(2014)
A hadronic explanation of the lepton anomaly
in Journal of Physics: Conference Series
Giasemidis G
(2013)
Aspects of dynamical dimensional reduction in multigraph ensembles of CDT
in Journal of Physics: Conference Series
Klages H
(2012)
Enhancements to the Southern Pierre Auger Observatory
in Journal of Physics: Conference Series
Aartsen M
(2017)
PINGU: a vision for neutrino and particle physics at the South Pole
in Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics
Giasemidis G
(2012)
Multigraph models for causal quantum gravity and scale dependent spectral dimension
in Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical
Ambjørn J
(2014)
A restricted dimer model on a two-dimensional random causal triangulation
in Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical
Aartsen M
(2015)
The IceProd framework: Distributed data processing for the IceCube neutrino observatory
in Journal of Parallel and Distributed Computing
Aartsen M
(2014)
Energy reconstruction methods in the IceCube neutrino telescope
in Journal of Instrumentation
Collaboration T
(2011)
The Pierre Auger Observatory scaler mode for the study of solar activity modulation of galactic cosmic rays
in Journal of Instrumentation
Acounis S
(2012)
Results of a self-triggered prototype system for radio-detection of extensive air showers at the Pierre Auger Observatory
in Journal of Instrumentation
Abreu P
(2012)
Antennas for the detection of radio emission pulses from cosmic-ray induced air showers at the Pierre Auger Observatory
in Journal of Instrumentation
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
Hamilton K
(2013)
NNLOPS simulation of Higgs boson production
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Buchbinder E
(2014)
A heterotic standard model with B - L symmetry and a stable proton
in Journal of High Energy 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
Melia T
(2012)
Gluon fusion contribution to W + W - + jet production
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Banfi A
(2012)
NLL+NNLO predictions for jet-veto efficiencies in Higgs-boson and Drell-Yan production
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Klaput M
(2013)
Heterotic Calabi-Yau compactifications with flux
in Journal of High Energy Physics
He Y
(2014)
Heterotic model building: 16 special manifolds
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Karlberg A
(2014)
NNLOPS accurate Drell-Yan production
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Frandsen M
(2012)
LHC and Tevatron bounds on the dark matter direct detection cross-section for vector mediators
in Journal of High Energy Physics
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
Klaput M
(2013)
Moduli stabilising in heterotic nearly Kähler compactifications
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Banfi A
(2014)
Quark masses in Higgs production with a jet veto
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Brod J
(2013)
Constraints on CP-violating Higgs couplings to the third generation
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Carena M
(2012)
Higgs production in a warped extra dimension
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Buras A
(2012)
Erratum: charm quark contribution to $ {K^{+}}\to {\pi^{+}}\nu \overline{\nu} $ at next-to-next-to-leading order
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Gray J
(2014)
Topological invariants and fibration structure of complete intersection Calabi-Yau four-folds
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Gorbahn M
(2014)
Searching for t ? c(u)h with dipole moments
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Jäger B
(2014)
Electroweak ZZjj production in the Standard Model and beyond in the POWHEG-BOX V2
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Jäger B
(2012)
Next-to-leading order QCD corrections to electroweak Zjj production in the POWHEG BOX
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Haisch U
(2013)
MSSM: cornered and correlated
in Journal of High Energy Physics
March-Russell J
(2012)
Closing in on asymmetric dark matter I: model independent limits for interactions with quarks
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Haisch U
(2013)
QCD effects in mono-jet searches for dark matter
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Hardy E
(2012)
Precision unification in ?SUSY with a 125GeV Higgs
in Journal of High Energy Physics
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
Frandsen M
(2011)
Direct detection of dark matter in models with a light Z'
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Anderson L
(2012)
Heterotic line bundle standard models
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Gauld R
(2014)
An explicit Z '-boson explanation of the B ? K * µ + µ - anomaly
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Cooper-Sarkar A
(2011)
The high energy neutrino cross-section in the Standard Model and its uncertainty
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Buchbinder E
(2014)
The moduli space of heterotic line bundle models: a case study for the tetra-quadric
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Haisch U
(2013)
The impact of heavy-quark loops on LHC dark-matter searches
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Bobeth C
(2014)
On new physics in ?G d
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
| 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 |