Precision Phenomenology for LHC Run II : The Standard Model and Beyond

该奖项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。大型强子对撞机刚刚开始第二个延长的数据采集期(Run II)，在粒子物理学领域很难想象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最基本的方向之一--发现和理解新的物理定律--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。更严格地说，威廉姆斯教授将以次要顺序的精度进行尖端计算，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。威廉姆斯教授还将计算对矢量玻色子产生的QCD-EW混合修正，并将结果应用到MCFM中，从而改进对W玻色子质量的测量。W玻色子质量是测试标准模型整体一致性的关键参数，从而限制了可能出现的新物理。

This 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 just 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 laws. 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 experimental (and theoretical) users and will be utilized in experimental analyses. More technically, Professor Williams will perform cutting edge calculations at Next-to-Next-to Leading Order accuracy 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 calculate the mixed QCD-EW corrections to vector boson production, and implement the results into MCFM, allowing for an improved measurement of the W boson mass, a crucial parameter in testing the overall consistency of the Standard Model and thereby constraining the possible new physics beyond.