Off-shell Higgs Physics

The project is to conduct research in the area of Off-shell Higgs Physics, where the incorporation of next-to-leading order OCD corrections into the Monte Carlo modelling of loop-induced processes is crucial and multi-jet mergeing effects are important. In this context, I will contribute to the development/validation/application of the MadGraph5_aMC@NLO Monte Carlo event generator framework in and beyond the standard model. This work will be applied to perform a novel analysis of the pioneering off-shell-enabled Higgs width constraint from LHC data recently obtained by ATLAS and CMS. The SM Effective Field Theory implementation in MG5_aMC will be used to perform a global fit that includes the coefficients of higher dimensional operators which can signficantly modify the off-shell distributions of four-lepton final states. The project will be supervised by and carried out with Nikolas Kauer, with support from the MG5_aMC team as well as Adrea Banfi and Veronica Sanz. They will contribute to the activities of the LHC Higgs Cross Section Working Group.