The Lancaster, Manchester, Sheffield Consortium for Fundamental Physics: Particle Physics, From the Universe to the LHC
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Manchester
Department Name: Physics and Astronomy
Abstract
Particle physics is all about understanding the elementary building blocks of nature and their interactions. Over the years, physicists have developed the Standard Model of particle physics, which is extremely successful in describing a very wide range of natural phenomena from things as basic as how light works and why atoms form through to the complicated workings inside stars and the synthesis of nuclei in the first few minutes after the Big Bang. However, we know that the Standard Model is not the whole story for it leaves many questions unanswered. Our proposal focuses on these unanswered questions and the way that scientists hope to address them in the coming years using experiments like the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) or observations like those that will be made using the Planck satellite.
The discovery at the LHC of a Higgs boson is a major milestone in our quest to understand the origin of mass. It is certainly not, however, the whole story. The LHC experiments are working hard to measure the properties of the particle they have discovered. They are also searching for new particles such as those predicted by supersymmetry. If supersymmetry is discovered then it offers the hope to explain the origin of the Dark Matter that makes up a large fraction of the material that is known to exist in the Universe. The scientists in our consortium will explore the theory of supersymmetry and dark matter. We will use data from experiments like the LHC to identify which of the many possible variants of supersymmetry are allowed by the data and to suggest new ways to explore those models in experiments. Any "new physics" produced at the LHC will be produced as a result of smashing two protons into each other, a very complicated environment, usually in association with "jets" of other particles. Members of our consortium will explore how we can make use of these jets to learn more about the associated new physics: the better we understand the environment in which new physics occurs, the more we are able to learn about the new physics itself. This is a complicated business that often necessitates computer simulations of particle collisions. Our members are experts in these simulations and have plans on how the make them more accurate, which is necessary if we are to make the most of the exciting data from the LHC.
The Standard Model of particle physics is also insufficient when it comes to explaining the early history of the Universe, when it was hot and dense. The evidence is now very strong that the history began with an era of accelerating expansion, called inflation. We are experts on inflation and its consequences. Inflation makes the Universe featureless, except for tiny quantum fluctuations that cause the density of matter and energy in the Universe to vary with position. These initially small variations grow to become observable effects. One effect is the formation of the billions of galaxies that populate the night sky. Another is to leave a tiny imprint on the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB), a faint hum of microwave radiation in which the Universe is bathed. The CMB is being studied in exquisite detail by the Planck satellite, which was launched in 2009. We are at the forefront of interpreting the Planck data in the hope of pinning down which of the various theories of the early universe are ruled out and which remain viable. The deficiencies of the Standard Model extend still further for it does not explain the amount nor even the existence of ordinary matter. Our scientists will use this to constrain possible physics beyond the Standard Model and to do that they need to master the dynamics of the Universe shortly after the end of inflation. Last but not least, we hope to understand better the mysterious "Dark Energy" that drives the current and future acceleration of the Universe: one possibility is that it is because Einstein's theory of gravity is not quite right and that is something we will explore.
The discovery at the LHC of a Higgs boson is a major milestone in our quest to understand the origin of mass. It is certainly not, however, the whole story. The LHC experiments are working hard to measure the properties of the particle they have discovered. They are also searching for new particles such as those predicted by supersymmetry. If supersymmetry is discovered then it offers the hope to explain the origin of the Dark Matter that makes up a large fraction of the material that is known to exist in the Universe. The scientists in our consortium will explore the theory of supersymmetry and dark matter. We will use data from experiments like the LHC to identify which of the many possible variants of supersymmetry are allowed by the data and to suggest new ways to explore those models in experiments. Any "new physics" produced at the LHC will be produced as a result of smashing two protons into each other, a very complicated environment, usually in association with "jets" of other particles. Members of our consortium will explore how we can make use of these jets to learn more about the associated new physics: the better we understand the environment in which new physics occurs, the more we are able to learn about the new physics itself. This is a complicated business that often necessitates computer simulations of particle collisions. Our members are experts in these simulations and have plans on how the make them more accurate, which is necessary if we are to make the most of the exciting data from the LHC.
The Standard Model of particle physics is also insufficient when it comes to explaining the early history of the Universe, when it was hot and dense. The evidence is now very strong that the history began with an era of accelerating expansion, called inflation. We are experts on inflation and its consequences. Inflation makes the Universe featureless, except for tiny quantum fluctuations that cause the density of matter and energy in the Universe to vary with position. These initially small variations grow to become observable effects. One effect is the formation of the billions of galaxies that populate the night sky. Another is to leave a tiny imprint on the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB), a faint hum of microwave radiation in which the Universe is bathed. The CMB is being studied in exquisite detail by the Planck satellite, which was launched in 2009. We are at the forefront of interpreting the Planck data in the hope of pinning down which of the various theories of the early universe are ruled out and which remain viable. The deficiencies of the Standard Model extend still further for it does not explain the amount nor even the existence of ordinary matter. Our scientists will use this to constrain possible physics beyond the Standard Model and to do that they need to master the dynamics of the Universe shortly after the end of inflation. Last but not least, we hope to understand better the mysterious "Dark Energy" that drives the current and future acceleration of the Universe: one possibility is that it is because Einstein's theory of gravity is not quite right and that is something we will explore.
Planned Impact
See the attached "Pathways to Impact" document for details.
This project has impact beyond the international scientific community mainly through the training of highly skilled graduate students and postdoctoral researchers and through extensive "outreach" activities of various kinds aimed at engaging directly with the general public, school children, teachers, policy makers and the media. Undergraduate teaching is also impacted beneficially by our research.
This project has impact beyond the international scientific community mainly through the training of highly skilled graduate students and postdoctoral researchers and through extensive "outreach" activities of various kinds aimed at engaging directly with the general public, school children, teachers, policy makers and the media. Undergraduate teaching is also impacted beneficially by our research.
Organisations
Publications
Ambrus V
(2014)
Dirac fermions on an anti-de Sitter background
Lyth D
(2014)
BICEP2, the curvature perturbation and supersymmetry
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Choudhury S
(2014)
An accurate bound on tensor-to-scalar ratio and the scale of inflation
in Nuclear Physics B
Bomark N
(2014)
3.5 keV x-ray line from decaying gravitino dark matter
in Physical Review D
Donnachie A
(2014)
Central soft production of hadrons in pp collisions
in International Journal of Modern Physics A
Dolan S
(2014)
Gravitational self-torque and spin precession in compact binaries
in Physical Review D
Choudhury S
(2014)
Constraining $ \mathcal{N} $ = 1 supergravity inflationary framework with non-minimal Kähler operators
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Ashoorioon A
(2014)
Reconciliation of high energy scale models of inflation with Planck
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Mazumdar A
(2014)
Dynamical breaking of shift symmetry in supergravity-based inflation
in Physical Review D
Das A
(2014)
Direct bounds on electroweak scale pseudo-Dirac neutrinos from s = 8 TeV LHC data
in Physics Letters B
Bhupal Dev P
(2014)
Maximally symmetric two Higgs doublet model with natural standard model alignment
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Brax P
(2014)
Early modified gravity: Implications for cosmology
in Physical Review D
Isoyama S
(2014)
Gravitational Self-Force Correction to the Innermost Stable Circular Equatorial Orbit of a Kerr Black Hole
in Physical Review Letters
Ashoorioon A
(2014)
Implications of purely classical gravity for inflationary tensor modes
in Modern Physics Letters A
Ilakovac A
(2014)
Lepton dipole moments in supersymmetric low-scale seesaw models
in Physical Review D
Ambrus V
(2014)
Rotating quantum states
in Physics Letters B
Wardell B
(2014)
Self-force via Green functions and worldline integration
in Physical Review D
Kowalska K
(2014)
Low fine tuning in the MSSM with higgsino dark matter and unification constraints
in Journal of High Energy Physics
McDonald J
(2014)
Hemispherical power asymmetry from a space-dependent component of the adiabatic power spectrum
in Physical Review D
Roszkowski L
(2014)
Neutralino and gravitino dark matter with low reheating temperature
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Ashoorioon A
(2014)
Gravitational waves from preheating in M-flation
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Biswas T
(2014)
Generalized ghost-free quadratic curvature gravity
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
De Bruck C
(2014)
Power spectra beyond the slow roll approximation in theories with non-canonical kinetic terms
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Ashoorioon A
(2014)
Gauged M-flation after BICEP2
in Physics Letters B
Battye RA
(2014)
Evidence for massive neutrinos from cosmic microwave background and lensing observations.
in Physical review letters
Sanchez J
(2014)
Inflationary buildup of a vector field condensate and its cosmological consequences
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Biswas T
(2014)
Super-inflation, non-singular bounce, and low multipoles
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Biswas T
(2014)
Atick-Witten Hagedorn conjecture, near scale-invariant matter and blue-tilted gravity power spectrum
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Altheimer A
(2014)
Boosted objects and jet substructure at the LHC. Report of BOOST2012, held at IFIC Valencia, 23rd-27th of July 2012
in The European Physical Journal C
Ashoorioon A
(2014)
Non-Bunch-Davis initial state reconciles chaotic models with BICEP and Planck
in Physics Letters B
Chen C
(2014)
Standard model explanation of the ultrahigh energy neutrino events at IceCube
in Physical Review D
Ashoorioon A
(2014)
Effect of transitions in the Planck mass during inflation on primordial power spectra
in Physical Review D
Dimopoulos K
(2014)
Shaft inflation
in Physics Letters B
Benone C
(2014)
Absorption of a massive scalar field by a charged black hole
in Physical Review D
Dev P
(2014)
Constraining non-thermal and thermal properties of Dark Matter
in Frontiers in Physics
Dev P
(2014)
Flavour covariant transport equations: An application to resonant leptogenesis
in Nuclear Physics B
Calmet X
(2014)
Quantum Black Holes
Mazumdar A
(2014)
Quantifying the reheating temperature of the universe
in Nuclear Physics B
Ashoorioon A
(2014)
Black holes as beads on cosmic strings
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Dev P
(2014)
New Production Mechanism for Heavy Neutrinos at the LHC
in Physical Review Letters
Choudhury S
(2014)
Primordial blackholes and gravitational waves for an inflection-point model of inflation
in Physics Letters B
Roszkowski L
(2014)
What next for the CMSSM and the NUHM: improved prospects for superpartner and dark matter detection
in Journal of High Energy Physics
McDonald J
(2014)
Negative running of the spectral index, hemispherical asymmetry and the consistency of Planck with large r
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Dev P
(2014)
Neutrino mass and dark matter in light of recent AMS-02 results
in Physical Review D
Battye R
(2014)
Classically isospinning Skyrmion solutions
in Physical Review D
Crispino L
(2014)
Inferring black hole charge from backscattered electromagnetic radiation
in Physical Review D
Dickinson R
(2014)
Manifest causality in quantum field theory with sources and detectors
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Conroy A
(2014)
Geodesic completeness and homogeneity condition for cosmic inflation
in Physical Review D
Dev P
(2014)
Leptogenesis constraints on the mass of right-handed gauge bosons
in Physical Review D
McDonald J
(2014)
Sub-Planckian two-field inflation consistent with the Lyth bound
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Description | Progress on many fronts towards a better understanding of the universe, by developing theoretical models constrained by data from the LHC and cosmology experiments such as Planck. |
Exploitation Route | By continued research. |
Sectors | Education |
Description | Researchers supported by this award have been very active in outreach activities for the general public, schools and scientists from other fields. |
First Year Of Impact | 2014 |
Sector | Education |
Impact Types | Cultural,Societal |