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
Fields B
(2014)
Big-Bang Nucleosynthesis
in Chin.Phys.
Wright B
(2012)
Darkness Visible?
in Australasian Journal of Philosophy
Aartsen M
(2016)
Characterization of the atmospheric muon flux in IceCube
in Astroparticle Physics
Aartsen M
(2020)
Neutrinos below 100 TeV from the southern sky employing refined veto techniques to IceCube data
in Astroparticle Physics
Hooper D
(2011)
Cosmogenic photons as a test of ultra-high energy cosmic ray composition
in Astroparticle Physics
Aartsen M
(2015)
Searches for small-scale anisotropies from neutrino point sources with three years of IceCube data
in Astroparticle Physics
Abreu P
(2011)
The exposure of the hybrid detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory
in Astroparticle Physics
Aartsen M
(2017)
The IceCube realtime alert system
in Astroparticle Physics
Abbasi R
(2011)
Measurement of acoustic attenuation in South Pole ice
in Astroparticle 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
Abreu P
(2012)
Search for signatures of magnetically-induced alignment in the arrival directions measured by the Pierre Auger Observatory
in Astroparticle Physics
Abbasi R
(2011)
Search for neutrino-induced cascades with five years of AMANDA data
in Astroparticle Physics
Abreu P
(2012)
Description of atmospheric conditions at the Pierre Auger Observatory using the Global Data Assimilation System (GDAS)
in Astroparticle Physics
Abbasi R
(2012)
The design and performance of IceCube DeepCore
in Astroparticle Physics
Abbasi R
(2013)
All-particle cosmic ray energy spectrum measured with 26 IceTop stations
in Astroparticle Physics
Abbasi R
(2012)
Background studies for acoustic neutrino detection at the South Pole
in Astroparticle Physics
Abreu P
(2011)
Search for first harmonic modulation in the right ascension distribution of cosmic rays detected at the Pierre Auger Observatory
in Astroparticle Physics
Acharya B
(2013)
Introducing the CTA concept
in Astroparticle Physics
Abbasi R
(2012)
Searching for soft relativistic jets in core-collapse supernovae with the IceCube optical follow-up program
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Abreu P
(2013)
Ultrahigh Energy Neutrinos at the Pierre Auger Observatory
in Advances in High Energy Physics
Bobeth C
(2013)
New Physics in <span class="cmmi-10">G</span><sub><span class="cmr-7">12</span></sub><sup><span class="cmmi-7">s</span></sup> <span class="cmr-10">: (</span><span class="overline"><span class="cmmi-10">s</span></span><span class="cmmi-10">b</span><span class="cmr-10">)(</span><span class="overline">
in Acta Physica Polonica B
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 | 09/2017 |
End | 09/2020 |