Welcome to the Theoretical Particle Physics Group in the Department of Physics at Royal Holloway University of London in the South East Physics Network (SEPnet).
There is PhD funding available within the Centre for Particle Physics group. For more information please check here.
About
We conduct research in the areas of collider phenomenology and astro-particle theory. The collider phenomenology activity includes precision calculations for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN and phenomenological studies of Higgs and electroweak gauge bosons in and beyond the Standard Model. The astro-particle activity includes theoretical developments in dark matter physics, early universe cosmology and neutrino physics. We are part of the NExT Institute.
Theoretical particle physicists develop and test models that describe the fundamental building blocks of nature (elementary particles) and how they interact (fundamental forces). Using mathematics as language and quantum theory as framework, the basic relations can be expressed in surprisingly simple and elegant form. At the same time, they allow to make predictions for amazingly different phenomena ranging from the collision of subatomic particles to the evolution of the structure of the universe. The subfield of particle physics phenomenology is concerned with investigating the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics and possible deviations from, and extensions to, it by making predictions for and comparing with measurements of collider and other particle physics experiments.
With Terascale proton collision data from the LHC, collider physics phenomenology has become a central area of particle physics. The LHC is the first machine that can access the energies required to systematically investigate electroweak symmetry breaking and the origin of mass, to search for supersymmetry (SUSY), or to revolutionise our understanding of space-time by detecting extra spatial dimensions. Another possibility is that the LHC finds evidence for the production of a dark matter candidate. Much of the evidence for dark matter comes from the study of the motions of galaxies. One generally finds that the gravitational mass is much larger than the luminous mass and therefore postulates an unknown type of matter that does not reveal itself by emitting electromagnetic radiation. The hunt for dark matter is also conducted with various dedicated direct detection experiments in deep underground laboratories.
Research
We conduct research in the areas of collider phenomenology and astro-particle theory. The collider phenomenology activity includes precision calculations for the Large Hadron Collider at CERN and phenomenological studies of Higgs and electroweak gauge bosons in and beyond the Standard Model. The astro-particle activity includes theoretical developments in dark matter physics, early universe cosmology and neutrino physics.
News:
- South-Eastern Particle Theory Alliance Meeting (December 2017)
- NExT Physics Meeting at Royal Holloway (November 2017)
- South-Eastern Particle Theory Alliance Meeting (January 2017)
- South-Eastern Particle Theory Alliance Sussex - RHUL - UCL funded by STFC for 2017-2020 (January 2017)
- Grant "Theoretical Studies of Elementary Particles" with Oxford funded by STFC for 2017-2020 (January 2017)
- STFC co-funds fifth NExT PhD Workshop, which goes national in 2015 (December 2014)
- Stephen West lectures at BUSSTEPP (August 2014)
- Mariyan Petrov attends the CERN Summer Student Programme (July 2014)
- Nikolas Kauer's research cited in CERN Courier magazine: CMS sets new constraints on the width of the Higgs boson (April 2014)
- IOP 2014 HEPP and APP Joint Meeting (April 2014)
- Royal Holloway and Sussex Particle Physics Theory Consortium funded by STFC for 2014-2017 (January 2014)
- Colloquium by Prof Tom Kibble, co-discoverer of the Higgs mechanism and many other distinctions (February 2013)
- NExT Physics Meeting at RHUL (November 2012)
- Royal Holloway and Sussex Particle Physics Theory Consortium funded by STFC for 2011-2014 (October 2011)
- Stephen West awarded IPPP Associateship for 2010-2011 (October 2010)
- Stephen West's research reviewed in New Scientist magazine: Heart of darkness could explain sun mysteries (July 2010)
- NExT Physics Meeting at RHUL (May 2010)
- IPPP-NExT workshop at RHUL: Theory Experiment Interplay at the LHC (April 2010)
- Nikolas Kauer awarded IPPP Associateship for 2009-2010 (October 2009)
- Stephen West's research reviewed in New Scientist magazine: Black holes are the ultimate particle smashers (September 2009).
Members
Academics
| Dr Nikolas Kauer | Senior Lecturer |
| Prof Stephen West | Professor |
| Dr Daniel Bedingham | Lecturer |
Researchers
| Dr Neda Darvishi | Research Associate in Particle Physics |
| Dr Richard Howl | Senior Research Fellow |
| Dr Mario Reig | Research Associate in Particle Physics |
Research student
| Joseph Aziz | PhD student |
| Vishakha Lingadahally | PhD student |
| Adam Ting | PhD student |
| Niall Williams | MSc Physics by Research student |
Alumni
| Dr Dugald Hepburn | PhD 2023 |
- Prof Veronique Boisvert (Director of Centre for Particle Physics)
- Prof Glen Cowan
- Prof Pedro Teixeira-Dias
- Prof Tracey Berry
- Prof Stephen Gibson (Accelerator Group Leader)
- Dr Asher Kaboth
Publications
- Inadequacy of zero-width approximation for a light Higgs boson signal, Kauer and Passarino, Journal of High Energy Physics 1208 (2012) 116.
- Handbook of LHC Higgs Cross Sections: 4. Deciphering the Nature of the Higgs Sector, Kauer et al. [LHC Higgs Cross Section Working Group], CERN Report CERN-2017-002-M (2017).
- Freeze-In Production of FIMP Dark Matter, Hall, Jedamzik, March-Russell and West, JHEP 1003, 080 (2010).
- Big Bang Synthesis of Nuclear Dark Matter, Hardy, Lasenby, March-Russell and West, JHEP 1506, 011 (2015).
Opportunities
Astro-particle physics (supervisor: Stephen West)
LHC phenomenology (supervisor: Nikolas Kauer)
Other topics are possible and should be discussed with a supervisor.
Events and Theory Seminars
- 06/12/17 "On the (low) threshold of New Physics" by Dr David Cerdeno (IPPP Durham)
- 11/01/17 "Going effectively beyond the Standard Model" by Dr Tevong You (Cambridge)
- 09/11/16 "The Fermi theory of the 21st century" by Dr Jeremie Quevillon (King's College London)
- 08/06/16 "Impact of LHC monojet searches on new physics scenarios" by Dr Suchita Kulkarni (HEPHY Vienna)
- 01/06/16 "The structure of the proton in the Higgs boson era" by Dr Juan Rojo (Oxford)
- 02/12/15 "Scalabe Bayesian inference with Hamiltonian Monte Carlo" by Dr Michael Betancourt (Warwick)
- 11/11/15 "Developments and prospects in the direct detection of dark matter" by Dr Jonathan Davis (King's College London)
- 28/10/15 "Quantum field theory of fluids" by Dr Ben Gripaios (Cambridge)
- 11/03/15 "Resummation effects in exclusive colour-singlet production processes at the LHC" by Dr Pier Monni (Oxford)
- 18/02/15 "Extra Higgses: the LHC road to electroweak baryogenesis" by Dr Jose Miguel No (Sussex)
- 10/12/14 "Probing the Higgs boson with vector boson scattering" by Prof Alexander Belyaev (Southampton)
- 03/12/14 "Interference effects in (B)SM Higgs searches" by Dr Christoph Englert (Glasgow)
- 20/10/14 "Unified dark matter and Higgs composite nature" by Prof Francesco Sannino (University of Southern Denmark) [from Sussex via video link]
- 22/01/14 "Unitarity method for high multiplicity NLO predictions" by Dr Daniel Maitre (IPPP Durham)
- 15/01/14 "Composite Higgs bosons at the LHC" by Prof Stefano Moretti (Southampton)
- 04/11/13 "The Higgs is here, and now what?" by Dr Veronica Sanz (Sussex)
- 09/10/13 "Jets, jets, Higgs and jets" by Dr Jennifer Smillie (Edinburgh)
- 02/10/13 "Jet issues in Higgs physics" by Dr Andrea Banfi (Sussex)
- 22/05/13 "E_6SSM inspired 6-Higgs-doublet models" by Dr Venus Keus (Southampton & RHUL)
- 18/02/13 "Top-quark physics: recent results and new developments" by Prof Peter Uwer (Humboldt University of Berlin) [from Sussex via video link]
- 01/02/13 "History of the Higgs and electroweak unification" by Prof Tom Kibble (Imperial College London)
- 23/01/13 "Asymptotic safety and the LHC" by Dr Daniel Litim (Sussex)
- 16/01/13 "Describing Dark Matter with effective operators" by Mr Felix Kahlhoefer (Oxford)
- 07/11/12 "Higgs searches using jets" by Dr Michael Spannowsky (IPPP Durham)
- 31/10/12 "Lepton number violation: from neutrinoless double beta decay to the LHC" by Prof Silvia Pascoli (IPPP Durham)
- 22/10/12 "A Higgs boson near 125 GeV beyond the MSSM" by Prof Steve King (Southampton) [from Sussex via video link]
- 09/05/12 "W'and Z' searches at the LHC" by Dr Elena Accomando (Southampton)
- 28/09/11 "Supersymmetry in light of 1/fb of LHC data" by Prof John Ellis (King's College London)
- 20/06/11 "Light quark physics with domain wall fermions" by Prof Chris Sachrajda (Southampton) [from Sussex via video link]
- 25/05/11 "Higher orders and multiplicities with Herwig++" by Prof Peter Richardson (IPPP Durham) [to Sussex via video link]
- 09/05/11 "Minimal Resonant Leptogenesis and Lepton Flavour Violation" by Dr Frank Deppisch (UCL) [from Sussex via video link]
- 12/01/11 "Parton distribution functions for the LHC" by Prof James Stirling (Cambridge)
- 17/11/10 "Z' physics" by Prof Steve King (Southampton)
- 26/10/10 "Gaps between jets and possible violation of QCD factorization" by Prof Mike Seymour (Manchester) [Tue 15:30]
- 19/05/10 "Cosmic rays and dark matter indirect detection" by Dr Philipp Mertsch (Oxford)
- 13/05/10 "WIMP hunting" by Dr Anne Green (Nottingham) [Thu 14:00]
- 17/03/10 "Weak boson pair production at the LHC" by Dr Nikolas Kauer (RHUL)
- 27/01/10 "NLO calculations for the LHC with generalized unitarity" by Prof Giulia Zanderighi (Oxford)
- 16/12/09 "Theoretical calculations for Higgs searches at the LHC" by Dr Terrance Figy (CERN)
- 25/11/09 "Measuring masses and spins of new particles at the LHC" by Prof Bryan Webber (Cambridge)
