Investigations in High Energy Physics

This award funds the research activities of Professors Ayres Freitas and Adam Leibovich at the University of Pittsburgh.

The purpose of this project is to develop improved theoretical tools and calculational methods for the robust interpretation of results from current and future physics experiments. Advanced techniques for identifying potentially small new physics signals from large backgrounds require excellent understanding of known particles and interactions as well as the development of new methods to calculate these processes.

A wide variety of phenomena will be investigated, from sub-atomic particles to gravity to cosmology. Professors Freitas and Leibovich also plan to work closely with colleagues in high-energy experiments and astrophysics to develop new search and analysis techniques for new physics and to improve the precision and theoretical robustness of tests of our current understanding of the Universe.

Research in these areas thus advances the national interest by expanding our knowledge of fundamental physical laws and educating young scientists in cutting-edge calculational and analysis tools. The broader impacts of this research program include the training and professional development of several PhD students and a postdoc. Professors Freitas and Leibovich will also help to organize workshops and summer schools to disseminate results from modern research to a larger audience of students and young researchers.

More technically, this research program can be divided into four main parts: (1) The development of calculational techniques for higher-order corrections to electroweak precision observables, which are relevant for planned future e+e- colliders as well as for several low-energy precision experiments currently in development at JLab and MESA; (2) The application of effective field theories, in particular Soft-Collinear Effective Theory, for production of jets at the LHC, for fragmentation of partons into hadrons, and for new physics signatures; (3) An investigation of a varied class of dark sector extensions of the Standard Model, including light weakly coupled messenger fields that could be more efficiently searched for with non-traditional experimental setups rather than at high-energy colliders; and (4) Calculations of precise gravitational wave physics using effective field theory techniques. In this context it is important to check the consistency of a viable model setup with a large range of experimental and theoretical constraints.

This research plan is guided by ongoing and planned experimental particle physics efforts, and results will be made available to the experimental community.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.