Exploring New Frontiers in Flavor Physics

University Of Arizona, Tucson AZ

Investigators

Abstract

Particle physics seeks to understand the laws governing the universe at the most fundamental level. There are indications that our current best formulation of these laws, the Standard Model, is still incomplete. A promising route to the discovery of physics beyond the Standard Model is the precision study of decays of so-called bottom quarks -- elementary particles similar to but much heavier than the up and down quarks found inside protons and neutrons. In this project, the properties of several types of bottom quark decays will be calculated. This involves solving the equations of quantum chromodynamics on a space-time lattice using supercomputers. The results of these calculations can be compared to experimental data from the Large Hadron Collider and the future SuperKEKB Collider to search for signs of new fundamental physics. This project will provide training to students at the University of Arizona not only in particle physics, but also in data analysis and in supercomputing. Lattice QCD computations will be performed for selected decays of bottom hadrons that have a high potential for the discovery of new physics, and whose theoretical description requires ab-initio determinations of new types of hadronic matrix elements. The research will focus on the following three areas: (1) Decays of bottom baryons, (2) Decays of bottom hadrons with multi-hadron final states, and (3) Long-distance contributions to flavor-changing neutral-current decays. This project will help understand recent hints for deviations from the Standard Model, observed by the LHCb experiment in rare decays of B mesons. It will also address an important puzzle concerning the smallest element of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa quark mixing matrix.