FCC physics studies
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MSCA-2020-JDHondt04
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Beschrijving van het project
The HEP@VUB centre has been involved with the physics studies on the Future Circular Collider (FCC). This project uses a staged approach, in which a new, 100-km tunnel is first used for electron-positron collisions (FCC-ee), after which the complex is upgraded to collide hadrons (FCC-hh). The FCC-ee will offer the first chance to study the Higgs boson and top quark in a well-understood and very clean environment, with no pileup and no underlying event, as is the case in hadron colliders. It is of the utmost importance that the international community undertakes studies that determine the sensitivity of the FCC-ee to the most relevant physics scenarios in as much detail as possible and projections to the detector and accelerator performance necessary to achieve this sensitivity.
The measurement precision for processes involving Higgs bosons and top quarks at the FCC-ee will depend on the detector technology. It is particularly relevant that these studies start utilizing the modern analysis techniques currently used at the LHC to evaluate the physics reach of the FCC-ee, as most available FCC studies available now rely on reconstruction techniques that are effectively the same as the state-of-the-art at the end of the LEP era. Should a linear electron-positron collider be chosen in the future, the detector technology and physics simulations of this proposal could be adapted for another lepton collider project as well. The detailed studies will be essential to move the field of particle physics forward beyond the European Strategy and will givea Marie Curie Individual fellow a substantial influence and visibility to contribute the exciting choices that will be made in international particle physics in the coming years.
It is important that there is feedback between the detector R&D communities and the physics- measurement communities so that well-informed decisions can be made regarding the detector technology pursued at any electron positron collider. A successful Marie-Curie Individual Fellow will endeavor on further study of the Brout-Englert-Higgs mechanism at electron positron collider machines as the primary goal. The presence of a phenomenology group and strong CMS presence will be essential to achieve these studies successfully. The development of new analysis techniques to study Higgs bosons is will be an important facet when considering possible different detector technologies. The Higgs boson decays 58% to bottom-quark pairs and highly efficient identification of these particles is key. There is substantial world-class expertise in this topic at the HEP@VUB research centre, and the secondary goal of this proposal is to translate the heavy flavor identification expertise at the VUB towards future colliders.
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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