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

10 25 50

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Aartsen M (2015) SEARCH FOR PROMPT NEUTRINO EMISSION FROM GAMMA-RAY BURSTS WITH ICECUBE in The Astrophysical Journal

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Hunt P (2015) Search for features in the spectrum of primordial perturbations using Planck and other datasets in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics

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Aartsen M (2015) The IceProd framework: Distributed data processing for the IceCube neutrino observatory in Journal of Parallel and Distributed Computing

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Abdallah J (2015) Simplified models for dark matter searches at the LHC in Physics of the Dark Universe

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Kahlhoefer F (2015) On the interpretation of dark matter self-interactions in Abell 3827 in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters

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Aartsen MG (2015) Flavor Ratio of Astrophysical Neutrinos above 35 TeV in IceCube. in Physical review letters

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Aartsen M (2016) Searches for relativistic magnetic monopoles in IceCube in The European Physical Journal C

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Kraljic D (2016) Frames of most uniform Hubble flow in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics

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Hausegger S (2016) Footprints of Loop I on Cosmic Microwave Background maps in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics

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Aartsen M (2016) Neutrino oscillation studies with IceCube-DeepCore in Nuclear Physics B

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Aartsen MG (2016) Searches for Sterile Neutrinos with the IceCube Detector. in Physical review letters

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Aartsen M (2016) Characterization of the atmospheric muon flux in IceCube in Astroparticle Physics

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Olive K (2016) Review of Particle Physics in Chinese Physics C

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Gauld R (2016) The prompt atmospheric neutrino flux in the light of LHCb in Journal of High Energy Physics

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Aartsen M (2017) PINGU: a vision for neutrino and particle physics at the South Pole in Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics

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Aartsen M (2017) THE CONTRIBUTION OF FERMI -2LAC BLAZARS TO DIFFUSE TEV-PEV NEUTRINO FLUX in The Astrophysical Journal

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Abbott B (2017) Multi-messenger Observations of a Binary Neutron Star Merger in The Astrophysical Journal

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Aartsen MG (2017) Measurement of the ? µ energy spectrum with IceCube-79: IceCube Collaboration. in The European physical journal. C, Particles and fields

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Colin J (2017) High-redshift radio galaxies and divergence from the CMB dipole in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Aartsen M (2017) The IceCube realtime alert system in Astroparticle Physics

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P. Conlon J (2020) Moduli Stabilisation and the Holographic Swampland in Letters in 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