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
Ould El Hadj M
(2020)
Scattering from compact objects: Regge poles and the complex angular momentum method
in Physical Review D
Namasivayam S
(2023)
Vacuum polarization on three-dimensional anti-de Sitter space-time with Robin boundary conditions
in General Relativity and Gravitation
Morley T
(2021)
Vacuum polarization on topological black holes with Robin boundary conditions
in Physical Review D
Morley T
(2018)
Vacuum polarization on topological black holes
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Morley T
(2018)
Vacuum polarization on topological black holes
Morley T
(2020)
Quantum field theory on global anti-de Sitter space-time with Robin boundary conditions
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Mifsud J
(2017)
Probing the imprints of generalized interacting dark energy on the growth of perturbations
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
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
Martínez R
(2018)
Soft gluon evolution and non-global logarithms
Martínez R
(2018)
Soft gluon evolution and non-global logarithms
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Maggio E
(2019)
Ergoregion instability of exotic compact objects: Electromagnetic and gravitational perturbations and the role of absorption
in Physical Review D
Macedo C
(2018)
Spectral lines of extreme compact objects
in Physical Review D
Lloyd-Stubbs A
(2019)
KSVZ axion model with quasidegenerate minima: A unified model for dark matter and dark energy
in Physical Review D
Lloyd-Stubbs A
(2020)
Sub-Planckian ? 2 inflation in the Palatini formulation of gravity with an R 2 term
in Physical Review D
Leite L
(2019)
Scattering of massless bosonic fields by Kerr black holes: On-axis incidence
in Physical Review D
Leite L
(2018)
Absorption of electromagnetic plane waves by rotating black holes
in Physical Review D
Leite L
(2017)
Absorption of electromagnetic and gravitational waves by Kerr black holes
in Physics Letters B
Law K
(2022)
Charged and C P -violating kink solutions in the two-Higgs-doublet model
in Physical Review D
Konewko S
(2023)
Charge superradiance on charged BTZ black holes
Kling F
(2020)
Looking forward to test the KOTO anomaly with FASER
in Physical Review D
Kling F
(2020)
Looking forward to test the KOTO anomaly with FASER
Kim J
(2017)
Inflaton condensate fragmentation: Analytical conditions and application to a -attractor models
in Physical Review D
Kim J
(2017)
Chaotic initial conditions for nonminimally coupled inflation via a conformal factor with a zero
in Physical Review D
Kim J
(2018)
Clockwork Higgs portal model for freeze-in dark matter
in Physical Review D
Kim J
(2018)
Freeze-in dark matter from a sub-Higgs mass clockwork sector via the Higgs portal
in Physical Review D
Karamitsos S
(2019)
Beyond the poles in attractor models of inflation
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Karamitros D
(2022)
Towards a Localised S-Matrix Theory
Karamitros D
(2023)
Toward a localized S -matrix theory
in Physical Review D
Karamitros D
(2022)
Quantum Coherence of Critical Unstable Two-Level Systems
Karamitros D
(2023)
Varying Entropy Degrees of Freedom Effects in Low-Scale Leptogenesis
Jodlowski K
(2020)
Extending the reach of FASER, MATHUSLA, and SHiP towards smaller lifetimes using secondary particle production
in Physical Review D
Hryczuk A
(2019)
Testing dark matter with Cherenkov light - prospects of H.E.S.S. and CTA for exploring minimal supersymmetry
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Hou T
(2018)
CT14 intrinsic charm parton distribution functions from CTEQ-TEA global analysis
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Hollowood T
(2017)
Decoherence, discord, and the quantum master equation for cosmological perturbations
in Physical Review D
Holguin J
(2020)
Improvements on dipole shower colour
Holguin J
(2021)
Improvements on dipole shower colour
in The European Physical Journal C
Holguin J
(2020)
Comments on a new `full colour' parton shower
Hijazi M
(2022)
Frictionless UV-finite Instantons in Curved Spacetime
Hijazi M
(2020)
Goldstone boson effects on vacuum decay
in Nuclear Physics B
Hijazi M
(2019)
Goldstone Boson Effects on Vacuum Decay
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 |