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
Darmé L
(2018)
Light dark Higgs boson in minimal sub-GeV dark matter scenarios
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Darmé L
(2018)
Flavor anomalies and dark matter in SUSY with an extra U(1)
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Darmé L
(2018)
Light dark sector at colliders and fixed target experiments
Darmé L
(2018)
Flavor anomalies and dark matter in SUSY with an extra U(1)
Darmé L.
(2018)
Light dark sector at colliders and fixed target experiments
in Proceedings of the 53rd Rencontres de Moriond - 2018 QCD and High Energy Interactions
Darvishi N
(2020)
Natural Alignment in Multi-Higgs Doublet Models
Darvishi N
(2019)
Quartic coupling unification in the maximally symmetric 2HDM
in Physical Review D
Darvishi N
(2020)
Classifying accidental symmetries in multi-Higgs doublet models
in Physical Review D
Darvishi N
(2021)
Maximally symmetric three-Higgs-doublet model
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
Dasgupta M
(2015)
Small-radius jets to all orders in QCD
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Dasgupta M
(2021)
Dissecting the collinear structure of quark splitting at NNLL
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Dasgupta M
(2016)
Inclusive jet spectrum for small-radius jets
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Dasgupta M
(2015)
On jet substructure methods for signal jets
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Dasgupta M
(2018)
Top tagging: an analytical perspective
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Dasgupta M
(2018)
Logarithmic accuracy of parton showers: a fixed-order study
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Dasgupta M
(2016)
Jet shapes for boosted jet two-prong decays from first-principles
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Dasgupta M
(2020)
Parton Showers beyond Leading Logarithmic Accuracy
in Physical Review Letters
Dasgupta M
(2021)
Investigating top tagging with Ym-Splitter and N-subjettiness
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Dasgupta M
(2016)
Improved jet substructure methods: Y-splitter and variants with grooming
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Dayal P
(2015)
THE QUEST FOR CRADLES OF LIFE: USING THE FUNDAMENTAL METALLICITY RELATION TO HUNT FOR THE MOST HABITABLE TYPE OF GALAXY
in The Astrophysical Journal
Daza Á
(2018)
Wada structures in a binary black hole system
in Physical Review D
De Bruck C
(2015)
The variation of the fine-structure constant from disformal couplings
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
De Bruck C
(2016)
Disformally coupled inflation
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
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
De Bruck C
(2015)
Disformal couplings and the dark sector of the universe
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
De Bruck C
(2016)
Generalized dark energy interactions with multiple fluids
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
De Bruck C
(2017)
Non-Gaussianity in multi-sound-speed disformally coupled inflation
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Dedes A
(2017)
Radiative light dark matter
in Physical Review D
Dedes A
(2017)
Radiative Light Dark Matter
Dempsey D
(2016)
Waves and null congruences in a draining bathtub
in International Journal of Modern Physics D
Dempsey D
(2016)
Waves and null congruences in a draining bathtub
Deppisch F
(2015)
Neutrinos and collider physics
in New Journal of Physics
Dev P
(2014)
Leptogenesis constraints on the mass of right-handed gauge bosons
in Physical Review D
Dev P
(2014)
Neutrino mass and dark matter in light of recent AMS-02 results
in Physical Review D
Dev P
(2015)
TeV Scale Lepton Number Violation and Baryogenesis
in Journal of Physics: Conference Series
Dev P
(2014)
Constraining non-thermal and thermal properties of Dark Matter
in Frontiers in Physics
Dev P
(2016)
Probing the scale of new physics by Advanced LIGO/VIRGO
in Physical Review D
Dev P
(2015)
TeV Scale Lepton Number Violation and Baryogenesis
Dev P
(2015)
TeV scale model for baryon and lepton number violation and resonant baryogenesis
in Physical Review D
Dev P
(2014)
New Production Mechanism for Heavy Neutrinos at the LHC
in Physical Review Letters
Dev P
(2016)
Flavour Covariant Formalism for Resonant Leptogenesis
in Nuclear and Particle Physics Proceedings
Dev P
(2014)
Flavour covariant transport equations: An application to resonant leptogenesis
in Nuclear Physics B
Dev P
(2015)
Flavour effects in Resonant Leptogenesis from semi-classical and Kadanoff-Baym approaches
in Journal of Physics: Conference Series
Dev P
(2016)
Disambiguating seesaw models using invariant mass variables at hadron colliders
in Journal of High Energy 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 |