Research project BL/10/IN11 (Research action BL)
With the energy and luminosity attaining their design values, the exploration of the TeV scale at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is quickly entering a new phase. The search for new resonances, which is mostly limited by the energy, will be slowly extending its reach, leaving the stage to the search for new interactions among the Standard Model (SM) particles. This latter type of search differs from the former in several essential aspects, one of them being the need for accurate and precise predictions for the SM and for a model-independent interpretational framework. The SM Effective Field Theory (SMEFT) approach provides such a framework: by just assuming the symmetries of the SM and that new physics resides at heavier scales, a systematic expansion in terms of higher-dimensional operators is made allowing to make predictions that can be systematically improved in perturbation theory &compared to data with increasing discriminating power.
The common overarching physics goal of the research groups in Belgium and in India is to provide precision predictions for key observables at the LHC and therefore contribute to the identification and characterization of BSM phenomena through precision measurements and their interpretation in the SMEFT.
The (co-)coordinators of proposed network (UCL /Institute for Mathematical Sciences in Chennai) have already a proven and successful record of collaboration. F. Maltoni and R. Vajravelu have (co-) coordinated a previous topping grant (HT@LHC 2013-2016) which lead to several promising results, including joint publications and the employment of two Indian researchers in Louvain as post-docs. In addition, Claude Duhr and Fabio Maltoni are the main developers of FeynRules and MadGraph, respectively, the leading MC tools to perform searches for BSM physics at colliders, for which a growing interest is present in the Indian HEP community. In summary, the two teams have common physics goals, complementary expertise, and already a successful collaboration record which they aim at developing further.
Main research activities
- Improving the precision of predictions for key Standard Model processes
- Perform accurate calculations in the SMEFT approach to provide an interpretation framework of precise measurements at the LHC.
