"QCD and the Standard Model in the Low-Energy, Non-Perturbative Regime"

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All current evidence points to the Standard Model of particle physics as being the correct basic theory needed to describe all low-energy phenomena in the universe. In the Standard Model, the strong interactions (which are responsible, for example, for binding neutrons and protons into atomic nuclei) are described using Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), while the weak and electromagnetic interactions are described using the unified electroweak theory of Glashow, Weinberg and Salam. Understanding the precise implications of the Standard Model, at low energies, for hadronic systems (those which feel the strong interactions) turns out to be a difficult task, for technical reasons associated with the strength of the strong interactions at these scales. The strength of the interactions complicates technical calculations for all processes at these scales involving hadrons. This is true not just for processes mediated by the strong interactions, but also for those mediated by weak and electromagnetic interactions in hadronic stystems, since the latter are altered in a non-trivial way by the strong force through quantum corrections. In this proposal, a number of computational techniques (such as "QCD sum rules", "Chiral Perturbation Theory" and "lattice gauge theory") will be employed to (i) produce quantitative predictions for hadronic properties and processes and (ii) allow precision determinations of a number of the basic parameters of the Standard Model. This work is of importance for improving our knowledge of the values of the Standard Model parameters (which parameters represent fundamental properties of our universe), for furthering our quantitative understanding of the effects of QCD in the strongly-interacting regime, and for providing enhancements to the repertoire of technical tools available to researchers studying strongly-interacting theories in general in future.