Exploring New Frontiers in Flavor Physics

粒子物理学试图在最基本的层面上理解支配宇宙的规律。有迹象表明，我们目前对这些法律的最佳表述--标准模式--仍然不完整。在标准模型之外发现物理学的一个有希望的途径是对所谓的底夸克的衰变进行精确研究。底夸克是一种基本粒子，类似于质子和中子内部的上下夸克，但比它们重得多。在这个项目中，我们将计算几种底夸克衰变的性质。这涉及到使用超级计算机在时空格子上求解量子色动力学方程。这些计算的结果可以与大型强子对撞机和未来的SuperKEKB对撞机的实验数据进行比较，以寻找新的基础物理的迹象。这个项目不仅将为亚利桑那大学的学生提供粒子物理方面的培训，还将在数据分析和超级计算方面提供培训。晶格QCD计算将对底部强子的选定衰变进行计算，这些衰变具有发现新物理的高潜力，其理论描述需要新类型的强子矩阵元素的从头计算。研究将集中在以下三个方面：(1)底部重子的衰变，(2)具有多强子末态的底部强子的衰变，以及(3)对味变化中性流衰变的长距离贡献。这个项目将有助于理解最近关于偏离标准模型的暗示，该模型由LHCb实验在B介子的罕见衰变中观察到。它还将解决关于Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa夸克混合矩阵的最小元素的一个重要谜题。

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.