This award funds the research activities of Professors Adam Leibovich and Ayres Frietas at the University of Pittsburgh.
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is currently taking the data at a remarkable rate. This data will allow particle physicists to probe the "Standard Model", which is the best current understanding of the fundamental interactions and building blocks of matter. Since the LHC is taking data at a higher energy than has previously been explored, it is possible that physics beyond the Standard Model will be discovered. This project will in part focus on signatures for beyond-the-Standard-Model physics that can be probed at the LHC. The goal is to find ways to determine properties of new non-Standard Model particles, such as mass and spin, even if we do not know what the new physics happens to be. This project will also focus on theoretical techniques to improve calculations of various particle-physics signals, including calculating higher-order perturbative corrections, summing infinite series of corrections, and pursuing path-integral techniques.
This project is also envisioned to have significant broader impacts. The proposed project is well suited for the participation of students at different levels, allowing them to acquire knowledge and skills in theoretical physics, mathematical methods, computer programming and data analysis. This project also has important connections to experimental high-energy physics and cosmology, thus strengthening synergistic effects between these different fields of specialization. Finally, the calculational techniques studied here also have applications in other fields of physics, such as general relativity and fluid dynamics.
