Exploring the limits of the standard model and beyond

大型强子对撞机(LHC)的实验一直在积累大量数据，并宣布发现了一个类似希格斯的粒子。在接下来的十年里，大型强子对撞机将对粒子物理学产生重大影响。它将进一步确定或排除新粒子是标准模型希格斯粒子，进而确定这是否提供了产生质量的基本机制。可以预料的是，将会有物理学的“超越标准模型”的签名。第一个也是到目前为止唯一的证据证明了新物理学“超越了标准模型”，那就是中微子的质量和混合，这可能会揭示尚未解答的众所周知的谜题，例如费米子(包括中微子)的质量和混合角的模式，以及四种力的强度。此外，中微子物理学可能通过瘦子发生、暗物质的存在和暗能量的大小(根据许多观测得出的结论)揭示宇宙中物质的丰度高于反物质。即将到来的中微子实验和宇宙学观测将进一步阐明这些问题。最后，引力和量子力学未能在这个框架内结合起来。这项提议是为了支持我们在南安普顿大学解决这些问题的理论工作，并帮助我们的实验同事发现新物理的签名，并解释新的数据。我们有专门知识和经验来设计这些研究的策略，也有发展新物理理论的经验。我们与在大型强子对撞机工作的英国实验人员有密切联系，并将在他们的分析中与他们密切合作。事实上，我们与卢瑟福-阿普尔顿实验室(RAL)一起建立了以理论家和实验者的密切合作为主要目标的下一个(新实验理论)研究所。多年来，它已经扩大到包括苏塞克斯、RHUL和(最近)QMUL。与此同时，我们开发了一个网络界面(HEPMDB)，允许研究人员使用超级计算机测试他们最喜欢的模型，而不需要是计算机代数和超级计算方面的专家。这些分析的结果反过来将约束新的理论，例如，通过证实或反驳超对称的想法，并指导我们解开基础物理学的下一个层次。这是非常令人兴奋的时刻！当然，为了确信我们观察到了新物理的信号，我们必须确保我们所看到的不仅仅是标准模型的微妙效果。通常，由于我们量化强大核力量的影响的能力有限，这很难做到。在南安普顿，我们在量子色动力学，QCD，这些强相互作用的理论方面拥有杰出的专业知识。这包括一个主要的研究计划，使用最先进的超级计算机来计算各种物理过程的这些影响。我们未来计划的一个主要组成部分是扩大和发展IBM Bluegene/Q超级计算机上的数值模拟活动。一些新粒子很可能太重，无法在大型强子对撞机上直接观测到。在这种情况下，它们的存在将不得不通过观察“罕见”过程与标准模型预测的偏差来间接推断。数值模拟程序将是建立这些偏差的中心，我们正在使用的分析技术也是如此。最后，我们开发了预测强相互作用系统行为的新方法，这为超越标准模型、宇宙学、引力的量子力学描述、甚至凝聚态物理的物理提供了信息。其中一种方法被称为“全息术”，通过从广义相对论、弦理论和黑洞物理的角度提供对强耦合的另一种描述，它与引力理论紧密相连。

Experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) have been accumulating huge amounts of data, and famously have announced the discovery of a Higgs-like particle. Over the next decade the LHC will have a very major impact on particle physics. It will further establish, or rule out, that the new particle is the Standard Model Higgs, and in turn whether this provides the underlying mechanism for the generation of mass. It is to be expected that there will be signatures of physics "Beyond the Standard Model". The first and so far only evidence for new physics "Beyond the Standard Model" is neutrino mass and mixing which may shed light on the unanswered well known puzzles such as the pattern of fermion (including neutrino) masses and mixing angles and the strength of the four forces. Also, neutrino physics may shed light on the abundance of matter over anti-matter in the universe via leptogenesis and the presence of dark matter and magnitude of dark energy (as deduced from many observations). The forthcoming neutrino experiments and cosmological observations will shed further light on these questions. Finally gravity and quantum mechanics fail to be combined within this framework.This proposal is to support our theoretical work at the University of Southampton which addresses these questions, and help our experimental colleagues discover signatures of new physics, and interpret the new data. We have expertise and experience in devising strategies for these searches and also in developing theories of new physics. We have close links to the UK experimenters working at the LHC and will work closely with them in their analyses. Indeed, together with the Rutherford-Appleton Laboratory (RAL), we have founded the NExT (New Experimental Theoretical) Institute with the close collaboration of theorists and experimenters as its main goal. It has expanded over the years to also include Sussex, RHUL and (more recently) QMUL. Meanwhile we have developed a web-interface (HEPMDB) which allows researchers to test their favourite model using supercomputers without needing to be experts in computer algebra and supercomputing. The results from the analyses in turn will constrain the new theories, for example by confirming or disproving the idea of supersymmetry, and guide us in unravelling the next level of fundamental physics. These are remarkably exciting times!Of course, in order to be confident that we have observed a signal of new physics we have to be sure that what we are seeing is not simply a subtle effect of the standard model. Frequently, as a result of our limited ability to quantify the effects of the strong nuclear force, this is difficult to do. In Southampton we have outstanding expertise in quantum chromodynamics, QCD, the theory of these strong interactions. This includes a major research programme using state-of-the-art supercomputers to compute these effects for a wide variety of physical processes. A major component of our future programme is to expand and develop the activity of numerical simulations on the IBM BlueGene/Q supercomputers. It is likely that some new particles will be too heavy to be observed directly at the LHC. In that case their presence will have to be deduced indirectly, by observing deviations from Standard Model predictions for "rare" processes. The programme of numerical simulations will be central in establishing these deviations as will the analytical techniques which we are using.Finally, we develop new ways of predicting the behaviour of strongly interacting systems which informs physics beyond the standard model, cosmology, the quantum mechanical description of gravity, and even condensed matter physics. One of these approaches is dubbed "holography" and is deeply connected to theories of gravitation by providing an alternative description of strong coupling in terms of General Relativity, String Theory and Black Hole physics.