The Large Hadron Collider at CERN is now producing data so precise that existing theoretical calculations can no longer keep up, threatening to leave fundamental questions about the laws of physics unanswered. The Standard Model of particle physics has passed every experimental test for decades, but its equations become impossibly complex when pushed to the accuracy the LHC now demands. This project develops new mathematical techniques to perform those calculations—specifically, higher-order corrections in quantum chromodynamics, the theory governing the strong nuclear force that binds quarks inside protons. Without these advances, physicists cannot tell whether subtle deviations in LHC data point to new particles or are merely artefacts of incomplete theory. The work is fundamental science with no immediate practical application. But the same kind of theoretical precision work that once made GPS possible—requiring corrections for relativistic time dilation—began as pure physics curiosity. If successful, these techniques will allow researchers to extract the full information content from LHC data, potentially revealing cracks in the Standard Model that could point toward a deeper theory of nature, including the nature of dark matter.
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The CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is collecting a huge quantity of high-precision data, which allow for the scrutiny of the structure of fundamental interactions at an unprecedented level of depth. Key to this endeavour are exquisitely accurate theoretical predictions, able to match the precision of experimental data. Without them, fundamental questions like “Is the Standard Model the correct description of Nature in the TeV region?” may remain unanswered. Achieving good theoretical control at hadron colliders is notoriously difficult. A critical element for it are higher-order perturbative calculations in Quantum Chromodynamics, the theory of strong interactions. Beyond the first few orders, such calculations are highly non trivial, which prevented us from obtaining precise-enough predictions for several key LHC processes and observables. This is even now hampering our ability of extract information from LHC data and the situation will only become more critical in the future, when even more data will become available. In this context, precSM aims to develop groundbreaking techniques for higher-order Standard Model perturbative calculations, and apply them to obtain predictions for key LHC processes and observables at a level of precision never achieved before. The results of PRECSM will pave the way for a new era in collider phenomenology, with important implications for a wide breadth of topics ranging from Higgs characterisation studies to dark matter searched at colliders and stress-tests of the quantum structure of the Standard Model.
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