Despite its many successes, the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics is believed to be incomplete. Dark matter, neutrino masses, and the instability of the electroweak energy scale against quantum corrections all point to New Physics beyond the SM. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) now running at CERN will allow some of these new possibilities to be experimentally tested. In addition, physicists also seek answers to the above puzzles from underground laboratories (e.g. dark matter and neutrino experiments at the SNO lab and around the world) to various satellite and ground-based telescopes to explore our universe. In preparation, theorists are studying the signatures of many possible extensions of the SM in order to develop search strategies. The Carleton theory group has been focusing on extensions of the SM containing extra Higgs bosons, new gauge bosons, and/or new heavy fermions. This work involves calculating the model predictions for particle properties, production modes, and decays, as well as simulating signal and background events and developing search strategies to distinguish New Physics signatures from the SM background.
For the summer of 2024 the theory group is looking for an NSERC USRA student to carry out this program. The projects will most likely involve:
- running existing codes for signals and backgrounds and developing search strategies based on the physics features of the signal, or
- developing the phenomenological features of a model of physics beyond the Standard Model.
Details of the projects will be tailored to the students' individual interests.
Potential Supervisors:
Professor Steve Godfrey, Department of Physics, Carleton University
Professor Thomas Gregoire, Department of Physics, Carleton University
Professor Seyda Ipek, Department of Physics, Carleton University
Professor Heather Logan, Department of Physics, Carleton University
Professor Yue Zhang, Department of Physics, Carleton University
Contact:
Professor Yue Zhang, Department of Physics, Carleton University yzhang
physics [dot] carleton [dot] ca