Exploring the limits of the standard model and beyond

Experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) have been accumulating huge amounts of data, and famously have announced the discovery of a Higgs-like particle. Over the next decade the LHC will have a very major impact on particle physics. It will further establish, or rule out, that the new particle is the Standard Model Higgs, and in turn whether this provides the underlying mechanism for the generation of mass. It is to be expected that there will be signatures of physics "Beyond the Standard Model". The first and so far only evidence for new physics "Beyond the Standard Model" is neutrino mass and mixing which may shed light on the unanswered well known puzzles such as the pattern of fermion (including neutrino) masses and mixing angles and the strength of the four forces. Also, neutrino physics may shed light on the abundance of matter over anti-matter in the universe via leptogenesis and the presence of dark matter and magnitude of dark energy (as deduced from many observations). The forthcoming neutrino experiments and cosmological observations will shed further light on these questions. Finally gravity and quantum mechanics fail to be combined within this framework.

This proposal is to support our theoretical work at the University of Southampton which addresses these questions, and help our experimental colleagues discover signatures of new physics, and interpret the new data. We have expertise and experience in devising strategies for these searches and also in developing theories of new physics. We have close links to the UK experimenters working at the LHC and will work closely with them in their analyses. Indeed, together with the Rutherford-Appleton Laboratory (RAL), we have founded the NExT (New Experimental Theoretical) Institute with the close collaboration of theorists and experimenters as its main goal. It has expanded over the years to also include Sussex, RHUL and (more recently) QMUL. Meanwhile we have developed a web-interface (HEPMDB) which allows researchers to test their favourite model using supercomputers without needing to be experts in computer algebra and supercomputing. The results from the analyses in turn will constrain the new theories, for example by confirming or disproving the idea of supersymmetry, and guide us in unravelling the next level of fundamental physics. These are remarkably exciting times!

Of course, in order to be confident that we have observed a signal of new physics we have to be sure that what we are seeing is not simply a subtle effect of the standard model. Frequently, as a result of our limited ability to quantify the effects of the strong nuclear force, this is difficult to do. In Southampton we have outstanding expertise in quantum chromodynamics, QCD, the theory of these strong interactions. This includes a major research programme using state-of-the-art supercomputers to compute these effects for a wide variety of physical processes. A major component of our future programme is to expand and develop the activity of numerical simulations on the IBM BlueGene/Q supercomputers. It is likely that some new particles will be too heavy to be observed directly at the LHC. In that case their presence will have to be deduced indirectly, by observing deviations from Standard Model predictions for "rare" processes. The programme of numerical simulations will be central in establishing these deviations as will the analytical techniques which we are using.

Finally, we develop new ways of predicting the behaviour of strongly interacting systems which informs physics beyond the standard model, cosmology, the quantum mechanical description of gravity, and even condensed matter physics. One of these approaches is dubbed "holography" and is deeply connected to theories of gravitation by providing an alternative description of strong coupling in terms of General Relativity, String Theory and Black Hole physics.

Who are likely to be interested in or will benefit from this research (directly or indirectly)?

1) IBM and other High Performance Computing manufacturers
2) leading IT companies (e.g. IBM, Microsoft)
3) The commercial sector
4) Other areas of science (e.g. Biology, Medicine, Chemistry)
5) The wider public

How will they benefit from this research?

1) Our work in lattice QCD has a significant scientific pull on the development of massively parallel supercomputers; most recently the IBM BlueGene/Q series was co-designed by colleagues in the RBC--UKQCD Collaboration in which we work. This is bound to drive development of High Performance Computing more generally.
2) Our development of the HEPMDB web-interface to High Performance Clusters and potentially cloud computing (which went live in June 2011), allows people to take advantage of cluster computing without learning advanced computing methods for data processing. This is likely to be of interest to leading IT companies.
3) The developments in (1) and (2) could be of interest to the commercial sector that use High Performance Computing (e.g. weather forecasting, drug development, advanced engineering design, film and games industry, high finance etc). Half our PhD students leave to pursue careers outside academia, where the high-level analytical, computational and mathematical skills they have developed prove to be valuable. Since many settle in the UK this is a direct benefit to the economic competitiveness of the UK.
4) The developments in (1) and (2) will be of potential benefit to other areas of science that themselves have an impact (e.g. Medicine to Health). The DiGS software developed for UKQCD's QCDgrid distributed data storage, for example, has already been used by a cell-biology research group for storing and accessing high-definition images.
5) Our research, communicated through a very strong and active outreach programme has a strong benefit to culture of the nation. It would be fair to say that everybody has heard of the LHC, and the famous discovery of a Higgs-like particle, and very many ask with enthusiasm for news updates. There is a strong sense of ownership and pride in the wider public over this endeavour.

Importance and timescales?

It is widely recognised that it is of crucial importance that the UK position itself strongly in the high-added-value technologically advanced areas of the economy. The contributions described in (1) to (4) all work towards this. As stated the work has already had an impact on design of massively parallel supercomputers. The impact of our work on web-interfaces may take 5 to 10 years to realise. The high-level trained PhD students that enter the market have an immediate impact and often over relatively short periods of time (10 years) climb to influential positions within their chosen sector. The UK sense of ownership and well-being flowing from the LHC research is happening now.