Theory and Phenomenology at the Frontiers of the Standard Model

Northern Illinois University, Dekalb IL

Investigators

Abstract

This award funds the research activities of Professor Stephen P. Martin at Northern Illinois University. This project will advance our knowledge of the particles that are the basic constituents of matter, and the physical laws governing their interactions at very short distance scales. An important way of gaining new understanding of these topics is to study collisions of particles at very high energies. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the CERN Laboratory in Geneva, Switzerand, is currently the most energetic collider facility in the world, and was responsible for discovering the Higgs boson particle in 2012. It is now taking more data at a higher energy and faster rates, providing new chances for discovery. As part of his research, Professor Martin will pursue an enhanced understanding of the Higgs boson and other known particles, as well as develop strategies for detecting new unknown particles at the LHC and at planned future colliders. He will also perform calculations of unprecedented accuracy that predict and explain the implications of the known forces and proposed new forces. These activities will advance the national interest by improving our understanding of how nature works at the most fundamental level. This project will also have broader impacts. Martin will train and mentor university students at both the undergraduate and graduate levels on methods of scientific research. He will also interact directly with younger local students and other interested members of the public through science outreach exhibitions and judging at local and regional science fairs. More technically, Martin will continue his research on supersymmetric theories. These models predict that for each of the known types of fundamental particles, there must be another type with similar properties, but which are much heavier than those presently known. He will study the possible role in supersymmetric theories of axions, which can explain the absence of large CP-violating interactions in the strong nuclear force. Martin will develop search strategies for supersymmetric particles at the LHC, and at future experiments of various types, including proton-proton, electron-positron, and muon-antimuon colliders, with particular attention to compressed mass spectra which are known to be harder to probe. He will do the same for other new physics models, including those that predict new fermions with vector-like gauge interactions. He will work on multi-loop integrals in quantum field theories by developing new methods for their computation, with applications to precise evaluation of the basic parameters of particle physics, including the masses and interaction couplings of gauge bosons and the Higgs boson with each other and with quarks and leptons. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.