CAREER: Exquisite Calculations for Colliders

该职业奖资助纽约州立大学布法罗分校Ciaran Williams教授的研究活动。新升级的大型强子对撞机(LHC)代表着人类技术最先进、科学上最雄心勃勃的项目之一。通过在大型强子对撞机上以高能相互碰撞基本粒子，物理学家有望了解物质的基本组成部分，以及它们在比以往任何时候都更高的能量和更短的距离上的相互作用。大型强子对撞机最近开始了它的第二个延长的数据采集期(RUN II)，很难想象粒子物理学中还有比这更令人兴奋的时刻了。Run II将测试最近发现的希格斯玻色子是否与我们目前的预期完全一致，或者它的行为方式是否超越了我们目前最好的理论。大型强子对撞机计划的另一个主要目标是寻找目前知之甚少的暗物质微观理论，并了解暗物质是否与更传统类型的物质存在任何相互作用。因此，这一领域的研究通过促进科学在其最基本的方向之一--发现和理解新的物理定律--的进步来促进国家利益。所有这些分析都需要精确的理论预测，以便从数据中提取有用的信息，威廉姆斯教授将沿着这些思路进行详细的分析。具体地说，威廉姆斯教授将使用最近开发的方法进行新的计算，这些方法将导致比以前使用的理论不确定度小得多的理论不确定性。他的计算结果将向实验和理论用户公开发布，并将用于实验分析。威廉姆斯教授还将建立一项教育推广计划，针对在科学界代表性最低的少数群体(美洲原住民)。通过直接与当地美洲原住民学区的负责人合作，威廉姆斯教授将在获奖期间安排课外项目和费米拉国家加速器实验室的实地考察。更严格地说，威廉姆斯教授将在次要顺序精度和更高的顺序精度上执行尖端计算，并将这些结果应用到公开可用的计算机代码MCFM中。主要焦点将是关键的大型强子对撞机过程，如双玻色子的产生和与希格斯玻色子研究相关的过程。超越标准模型(BSM)的效应将被包括在内，通常是以反常耦合的形式，允许在实验分析中应用。威廉姆斯教授还将开发调节红外线奇点的方法，并将这一技术应用于与现象学相关的新过程。

This CAREER award funds the research activities of Professor Ciaran Williams at the State University of New York, University at Buffalo. The newly upgraded Large Hadron Collider (LHC) represents one of mankind's most technologically advanced and scientifically ambitious projects. By colliding elementary particles against each other at high energies at the LHC, physicists expect to learn about the fundamental building blocks of matter and their interactions at higher energies and smaller distances than have ever been previously explored. The LHC has recently begun its second extended data-taking period (Run II), and it is hard to envisage a more exciting time in particle physics. Run II will test whether the recently discovered Higgs boson is fully consistent with our current expectations, or whether it behaves in ways that transcend our best current theories. Another primary aim of the LHC program is to seek a microscopic theory of Dark Matter, which is currently poorly understood, and to understand whether there exist any interactions of Dark Matter with more traditional kinds of matter. Research in this area thus advances the national interest by promoting the progress of science in one of its most fundamental directions: the discovery and understanding of new physical law. All of these analyses require precise theoretical predictions in order to extract useful information from the data, and Professor Williams will carry out detailed analyses along these lines. Specifically, Professor Williams will perform new calculations using recently developed methods which will result in a much smaller theoretical uncertainty than those which have previously been used. The results of his calculations will be released publicly to both experimental and theoretical users and will be utilized in experimental analyses. Professor Williams will also establish an educational outreach program, targeting a minority population (Native Americans) which are one of the most under-represented in the sciences. By working directly with SuperIntendents from the local Native-American school districts, Professor Williams will, over the lifetime of the award, arrange after-school programs and as well as field trips to the Fermilab National Accelerator laboratory. More technically, Professor Williams will perform cutting-edge calculations at Next-to-Next-to Leading Order accuracy and beyond, and implement these results into a publicly available computer code, MCFM. The primary focus will be key LHC processes such as diboson production and those related to studies of the Higgs boson. Beyond the Standard Model (BSM) effects will be included, typically in the form of anomalous couplings, allowing for applications in experimental analyses. Prof Williams will also develop methods for regulation of infrared singularities and apply this techniques to new processes of phenomenological relevance.