The Lancaster, Manchester, Sheffield Consortium for Fundamental Physics: Particle Physics from the LHC to the Universe
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 was 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 its properties. They are also searching for new particles such as those predicted by supersymmetry and other new physics theories. 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 explore the theory of supersymmetry and dark matter. We use data from experiments like the LHC to identify which of the many possible new theories are allowed by the data and to suggest new ways to explore them 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 to 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 has been studied in exquisite detail by the Planck satellite. 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 during and 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 was 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 its properties. They are also searching for new particles such as those predicted by supersymmetry and other new physics theories. 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 explore the theory of supersymmetry and dark matter. We use data from experiments like the LHC to identify which of the many possible new theories are allowed by the data and to suggest new ways to explore them 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 to 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 has been studied in exquisite detail by the Planck satellite. 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 during and 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
Zhai Y
(2023)
A consistent view of interacting dark energy from multiple CMB probes
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Battye R
(2022)
A detailed study of the stability of vortons
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Finn K
(2018)
A Finite Measure for the Initial Conditions of Inflation
Bezrukov F
(2020)
A heatwave affair: mixed Higgs- R 2 preheating on the lattice
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Albrecht J
(2019)
A Roadmap for HEP Software and Computing R&D for the 2020s
in Computing and Software for Big Science
Adhikari R
(2017)
A White Paper on keV sterile neutrino Dark Matter
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Leite L
(2017)
Absorption of electromagnetic and gravitational waves by Kerr black holes
in Physics Letters B
Leite L
(2018)
Absorption of electromagnetic plane waves by rotating black holes
in Physical Review D
Birch-Sykes C
(2020)
Accidental symmetries in the 2HDMEFT
in Nuclear Physics B
Birch-Sykes C
(2020)
Accidental Symmetries in the 2HDMEFT
Benone C
(2017)
Addendum to "Absorption of a massive scalar field by a charged black hole"
in Physical Review D
De Angelis M
(2023)
Adiabatic and isocurvature perturbations in extended theories with kinetic couplings
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
German E
(2024)
Adiabatic inspirals under electromagnetic radiation reaction on Kerr spacetime
in Physical Review D
Dimopoulos K
(2020)
An analytic treatment of quartic hilltop inflation
in Physics Letters B
Dimopoulos K
(2020)
An analytic treatment of Quartic Hilltop Inflation
Mifsud J
(2019)
An interacting dark sector and the implications of the first gravitational-wave standard siren detection on current constraints
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Ambrus V
(2018)
Analysis of scalar and fermion quantum field theory on anti-de Sitter spacetime
in International Journal of Modern Physics D
Karamitsos S
(2019)
Beyond the poles in attractor models of inflation
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Ponglertsakul S
(2017)
Black hole solutions in Einstein-charged scalar field theory
Shepherd B
(2017)
Black holes with s u N $$ \mathfrak{s}\mathfrak{u}(N) $$ gauge field hair and superconducting horizons
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Choudhury A
(2017)
Blind Spots for Direct Detection with Simplified DM Models and the LHC
in Universe
Forshaw J
(2020)
Building a consistent parton shower
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Forshaw J
(2020)
Building a consistent parton shower
Kim J
(2017)
Chaotic initial conditions for nonminimally coupled inflation via a conformal factor with a zero
in Physical Review D
Konewko S
(2023)
Charge superradiance on charged BTZ black holes
Law K
(2022)
Charged and C P -violating kink solutions in the two-Higgs-doublet model
in Physical Review D
Hanson E
(2019)
Charged Higgs bosons in naturally aligned two-Higgs-doublet models at the LHC
in Physical Review D
Darvishi N
(2020)
Classifying accidental symmetries in multi-Higgs doublet models
in Physical Review D
Darvishi N
(2019)
Classifying Accidental Symmetries in Multi-Higgs Doublet Models
Kim J
(2018)
Clockwork Higgs portal model for freeze-in dark matter
in Physical Review D
Brax P
(2022)
Cointeracting dark matter and conformally coupled light scalars
in Physical Review D
Alonso I
(2022)
Cold atoms in space: community workshop summary and proposed road-map
in EPJ Quantum Technology
Holguin J
(2020)
Comments on a new `full colour' parton shower
Pace F
(2021)
Comparison of different approaches to the quasi-static approximation in Horndeski models
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Hadj M
(2022)
Conversion of electromagnetic and gravitational waves by a charged black hole
in Physical Review D
Srinivasan S
(2021)
Cosmological gravity on all scales. Part II. Model independent modified gravity N-body simulations
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Di Valentino E
(2021)
Cosmology intertwined III: f s 8 and S 8
in Astroparticle Physics
Abdalla E
(2022)
Cosmology intertwined: A review of the particle physics, astrophysics, and cosmology associated with the cosmological tensions and anomalies
in Journal of High Energy Astrophysics
Forshaw J
(2021)
Coulomb gluons will generally destroy coherence
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Darvishi N
(2021)
CP violation in the extension of SM with a complex singlet scalar and vector quarks
in Nuclear Physics B
Hou T
(2018)
CT14 intrinsic charm parton distribution functions from CTEQ-TEA global analysis
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Van De Bruck C
(2020)
Dark D-brane cosmology: From background evolution to cosmological perturbations
in Physical Review D
Van De Bruck C
(2020)
Dark D-Brane Cosmology: from background evolution to cosmological perturbations
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. |
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 | 2017 |
Sector | Education |
Impact Types | Cultural,Societal |