Investigations in High Energy Physics

University Of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh PA

Investigators

Abstract

This award funds the research activities of Professors Ayres Freitas and Adam Leibovich at the University of Pittsburgh. This purpose of this project is to develop improved theoretical tools and calculational methods for the robust, model-independent interpretation of results from current and future particle-physics experiments, both at the highest-energy colliders, such as the Large Hadron Collider, and for lower-energy precision measurements. The identification of a potentially small signal of new physics requires an excellent understanding of known particles and interactions. Furthermore, we will investigate techniques for model-independent descriptions of the effects of new physics, using a framework called "effective field theories". As a result, research in this area advances the national interest by promoting the progress of science in one of its most fundamental directions: the discovery and understanding of new physical laws. In conjunction with this effort, the PI's will also teach a special-topics course on effective field theories and precision physics. Both are topics that are often neglected in typical particle-physics textbooks. More technically, the research program can be divided into three main parts: (1) The development of calculational techniques for three-loop corrections to electroweak precision observables, and the integration of existing and new theoretical results for these observables into a flexible, object-oriented computer program; (2) The application of effective field theories, in particular Soft-Collinear Effective Theory, to unresolved questions at hadron colliders, such as processes involving jets, quarkonium production, and low-x physics; and (3) A comprehensive study of the use of effective field theories for new physics in Higgs, electroweak and flavor physics, with a focus on investigating correlations between operators, the role of different mass scales in the new-physics sector, and complications that arise in models of dark matter. This research plan is guided by ongoing and planned experimental high-energy physics efforts, and results will be made available to the experimental community in a suitable form.