The Large Hadron Collider at CERN will smash protons together at unprecedented energies, and this research will help physicists interpret whatever flies out. The problem is that the Standard Model of particle physics—our current best description of matter and forces—is incomplete. It cannot explain why particles have mass, what dark matter is, or how gravity fits with the other fundamental forces. The LHC may produce new particles or phenomena that point beyond the Standard Model, but spotting them requires extremely precise predictions of the messy "strong interaction" (QCD) that governs how quarks bind into protons and other hadrons. Without those predictions, a genuine discovery could be mistaken for background noise, or vice versa. This is fundamental science with no immediate practical application. The research uses both pencil-and-paper calculations and supercomputer simulations to predict what the LHC should see, and to study candidate theories—such as supersymmetry, extra dimensions, and string theory—that could unify all forces including gravity. If successful, it will tell us whether any of those theories describe reality. Past fundamental particle physics has given us the World Wide Web, medical imaging (PET scanners), and the basic understanding that underpins all modern electronics. A deeper theory of matter could, decades from now, enable technologies we cannot yet imagine.
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The overall aim is to elucidate the nature of matter and its fundamental interactions via a variety of phenomenological and theoretical studies. Of crucial importance will be the new results coming from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. The proposed research will improve our ability to predict the effects of the strong interactions (QCD) on the processes that will be studied at the LHC and develop efficient methods to determine the properties of any new states of matter discovered there. Both analytical and numerical methods will be used to study the properties of hadrons, strongly interacting bound states of quarks. The research will also seek to determine what lies beyond the Standard Model of the strong, weak and electromagnetic interactions with the ultimate goal of providing a fully unified theory, including gravity. The most promising candidate theories will be studied, including Grand and superstring unification and theories with additional space dimensions. Laboratory, astrophysical and cosmological implications will be analysed to determine the most sensitive experimental tests of these theories. We hope these studies will lead to a complete understanding of the origin of mass, including an understanding of the quark, charged lepton and neutrino masses, mixing angels and CP violation, one of PPARC's cornerstone aims. In addition to having direct relevance to the future LHC program the research under this grant will have relevance to present and future neutrino experiments and to STFC's programme of astrophysical and cosmological studies.
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