Particle Physics Phenomenology

At the Large Hadron Collider protons are brought into collision with unprecedented energy to unravel fundamental questions of nature, e.g. what is the origin of mass, what is matter made of or what is the basic underlying theory to describe nature? To answer these questions it is of paramount importance to be able to separate rare signal events, induced by new physics, from the large Standard Model backgrounds. Most of the proposed new physics scenarios result in signatures with many objects in the final state, e.g. jets and leptons. However, because of the large collision energy Standard Model processes are likely to produce final states with many jets and leptons as well. Therefore, a precise calculation of these backgrounds is important for searches of new particles and measurements of new particle's properties. The aim of this theoretical project is to improve predictions for production processes by including vector bosons and many jets. For this purpose next-to-leading order (NLO) corrections have to be included in the calculation. The tool commonly used are flexible Monte Carlo programs. Because of its immediate importance for measurements at the LHC's experiments a strong interaction with experimental collaborations is expected. The Institute for Particle Physics Phenomenology (IPPP) in Durham has an outstanding expertise in the calculation of NLO corrections and is therefore an ideal place for this ambitious project.