New Research Training Group at TTK
Our Research Training Group (RTG) proposal "The physics of the heaviest particles at the
Large Hadron Collider" has been approved by the DFG (German Research Foundation) and will
start in October 2019. The RTG is carried out jointly by the Institute for Theoretical Particle
Physics and Cosmology, Physics Institute III A and Physics Institute I B.
Spokesperson of the RTG is Prof. Michal Czakon. The principal investigators are Profs. Kerstin Borras, Michal Czakon, Martin Erdmann, Lutz Feld, Robert Harlander, Thomas Hebbeker, Michael Krämer, Alexander Schmidt and Priv.-Doz. Dr. Malgorzata Worek.
The RTG is centred around LHC research. It builds on the particular strengths of the scientific groups at the RWTH Aachen University and the tradition of close collaboration between theory and experiment. The experimental groups are part of the CMS collaboration and have contributed substantially to the detector construction, its upgrades, computing and data analyses. The theoretical group covers a broad range of topics from precision calculations in quantum chromodynamics to the phenomenology of supersymmetry and dark matter. The RTG is designed to study the heaviest particles both known and theorised. The focus will be on
- the Higgs boson, as a potential window to New Physics;
- the top quark, as the heaviest of the quarks with likely relation to spontaneous symmetry breaking;
- most plausible heavy, yet undiscovered, New Physics particles.
In particular, the purpose of the RTG is to enhance the fundamental understanding of the structure of the Higgs mechanism by studying the Higgs boson properties such as the couplings of the scalar to fermions, gauge bosons, and to itself. Furthermore, the special role of the top quark both as a source of dominant background processes and a link to New Physics will be exploited. At the same time, top-quark cross sections will be used to perform Standard Model tests and to extract fundamental parameters. Finally, the potential of the LHC will be fully explored as far as discovery of extended supersymmetric models and heavy dark matter particles is concerned.
More information can be found on the website of the RTG and in the press release by the DFG.