Exploring the stochastic astrophysical and cosmological gravitational wave background: from modeling to observation

High Energy Physics

Unique on the Belgian scale, about 23 professors at the VUB perform fundamental research towards a profound and comprehensive understanding of both the largest and smallest structures around us. Combining theoretical and experimental research of high-energy phenomena in the universe and on the quantum scale we aim to unravel the laws of nature at the most fundamental level. This effort is concerted in a flourishing HEP@VUB Research Centre which excels internationally. To achieve a coherent global picture of the reality around us, puzzling features that challenge the underlying basic principles in physics on large and small scales have to be studied and understood. The foundations of the Standard Models of both particle physics and cosmology face problems to explain for example the omnipresence of dark matter and dark energy, as well as the apparent need for fine-tuning in several corners of our models and the difficulty to unite all forces. Novel theoretical reasoning and further experimental explorations will provide insights towards solutions. The recent creation and now further consolidation of our phenomenological research activities are essential to profoundly connect theory and experiment, as well as to connect the studies of large-scale and small-scale features.

At the foundation of the HEP@VUB Research Centre is the involvement in a variety of large-scale research infrastructures around the world. At colliders our long-term engagement is focused on the studies of proton collisions with the CMS experiment at the LHC at CERN both for precise measurements and for searches. We develop analysis and reconstruction techniques and take responsibility in the upgrade of the all-silicon CMS Tracker. Recently, we started to explore physics studies at future colliders. For neutrino physics our research revolves around the very-short baseline SoLid experiment at the BR2 nuclear reactor at the SCK-CEN, Belgian’s leading nuclear laboratory. The IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole is our main infrastructure for astroparticle physics with a focus on multi-messenger astrophysics, complemented with the Auger observatory in Argentina for cosmic ray studies and novel radio detector arrays being installed on the South Pole and on Greenland in the search for ultra-high-energy neutrinos. The radio interferometric array of LOFAR, situated mainly in the Netherlands, allows us to observe and study high-energy astrophysics phenomena. Recently we engaged in gravitational wave research with the Virgo/LIGO interferometers, in the USA and Italy, and towards the new Einstein Telescope potentially situated partially in Belgium. Additionally, a broad range of theoretical topics in the area of string theory and holography is offered, often involving links to other fields in physics. Through phenomenological research we develop methods and tools towards an overall interpretation of the experimental results in existing theories and to build novel models to be confronted with experimental observations. The explicit phenomenological research has a focus on beyond Standard Model physics related to supersymmetry, dark matter, cosmology and inflation, but in astroparticle and collider physics.

The concrete research projects mentioned in the abstracts are embedded in the HEP@VUB Research Centre.The HEP@VUB Research Centre - https://hep.research.vub.be

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