Exploring the Limits of the Standard Model and Beyond
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Southampton
Department Name: Sch of Physics and Astronomy
Abstract
Experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) have recently began taking data and over the next decade will have a very major impact on particle physics. They will confirm or disprove the Higgs field as the underlying mechanism for the generation of mass and it is to be expected that there will be signatures of physics 'Beyond the Standard Model'. The Standard Model of Particle Physics has been remarkably (and frustratingly) successful and yet leaves in its wake the following well known puzzles: the origin of mass, the quest for unification and the problem of flavour. This proposal is to support the research of the theoretical particle physicists at the University of Southampton which addresses these questions. The main goal is to provide the theoretical ideas and techniques which will help our experimental colleagues discover the Higgs Boson and signatures of new physics, to influence the analyses which will be performed and to contribute to the theoretical interpretation of the experimental data. There are many aspects to this work and we now briefly review some of these and explain the Southampton group's role. The experimental discovery signatures of the Higgs Boson, and indeed of the particles present in theories beyond the standard model, depend on the masses of these particles and on the new theories. In Southampton 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 Interactions) Institute with the close collaboration of theorists and experimenters as its main goal, and NExT has recently been expanded to include Sussex and Royal Holloway. 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 which will be commissioned in mid-2011. It is likely that some (or perhaps all) 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. We also have a wider interest in the behaviour of strongly interacting systems which could play a role in physics beyond the standard model and in cosmology. For example we will study composite higgs models and variants of QCD with very different behaviour. Such systems are also deeply connected to theories of gravitation through a 'duality' which provides an alternative description of strong coupling in terms of general relativity, string theory and black hole physics - these studies will shed light on physics from phase transitions in QCD to quantum gravity.
Organisations
Publications
King S
(2012)
Tri-bimaximal-Cabibbo Mixing
King S
(2012)
NMSSM Higgs Benchmarks Near 125 GeV
King S
(2013)
Natural NMSSM Higgs bosons
in Nuclear Physics B
King S
(2014)
Discovery prospects for NMSSM Higgs bosons at the high-energy Large Hadron Collider
in Physical Review D
King S
(2014)
Effective theory of a doubly charged singlet scalar: complementarity of neutrino physics and the LHC
in Journal of High Energy Physics
King S
(2016)
Littlest Seesaw
in Journal of High Energy Physics
King S
(2015)
Neutrino Mass and Mixing in the Seesaw Playground
King S
(2012)
Tri-bimaximal-Cabibbo mixing
in Physics Letters B
King S
(2013)
A Grand Flavour Model
in Nuclear Physics B
King S
(2014)
Lepton mixing predictions including Majorana phases from ? ( 6 n 2 ) flavour symmetry and generalised CP
in Physics Letters B
King S
(2015)
Models of neutrino mass, mixing and CP violation
in Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics
King S
(2012)
Warm Dark Matter from keVins
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
King S
(2014)
Neutrino mass and mixing: from theory to experiment
in New Journal of Physics
King S
(2013)
The power of neutrino mass sum rules for neutrinoless double beta decay experiments
in Journal of High Energy Physics
King S
(2012)
NMSSM Higgs benchmarks near 125 GeV
in Nuclear Physics B
King S
(2015)
Littlest Seesaw
King S
(2014)
A model of quark and lepton mixing
in Journal of High Energy Physics
King S
(2015)
Models of Neutrino Mass, Mixing and CP Violation
King S
(2013)
A model of quark and lepton mixing
King S
(2015)
Exploring the CP-violating NMSSM: EDM constraints and phenomenology
in Nuclear Physics B
King S
(2016)
750 GeV diphoton resonance from singlets in an exceptional supersymmetric standard model
in Journal of High Energy Physics
King S
(2012)
Warm Dark Matter from keVins
King S
(2013)
Neutrino Mass and Mixing with Discrete Symmetry
King S
(2013)
Quark-lepton mass relation in a realistic A 4 extension of the Standard Model
in Physics Letters B
King S
(2014)
Neutrino Mass and Mixing: from Theory to Experiment
King S
(2016)
Neutrino mass and mixing in the seesaw playground
in Nuclear Physics B
King S
(2012)
Natural NMSSM Higgs Bosons
King SF
(2013)
Neutrino mass and mixing with discrete symmetry.
in Reports on progress in physics. Physical Society (Great Britain)
Lytle A
(2013)
Nonperturbative renormalization for improved staggered bilinears
in Physical Review D
Portelli A
(2015)
Inclusion of isospin breaking effects in lattice simulations
Portelli A
(2015)
Inclusion of isospin breaking effects in lattice simulations
Preston A
(2014)
Cosmological back-reaction in modified gravity and its implications for dark energy
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
RBC
(2014)
Domain wall QCD with physical quark masses
RBC Collaboration
(2012)
Domain Wall QCD with Near-Physical Pions
Romão M
(2015)
MSSM from F-theory SU(5) with Klein Monodromy
Sachrajda Christopher
(2011)
Phenomenology from the Lattice
in arXiv e-prints
Sivalingam K
(2012)
Kaon semileptonic decays near the physical point
Zanotti J
(2010)
Determining the Kl3 form factors directly at zero momentum transfer
Description | Grant ended 2011 -no further findings |
Exploitation Route | As above |
Sectors | Other |
Description | No further progress, grant ended in 2011 |
First Year Of Impact | 2009 |
Sector | Education |
Impact Types | Societal |