The Alliance Addressing Fundamental Questions in Science
International Collaborations in Particle Physics
Particle physics addresses many of the most profound questions in fundamental science. What are the basic building blocks of matter? What are the fundamental interactions? What happened in the Universe's earliest stages, and how did that result in what we observe around us today? Extensive international collaborations are needed to progress towards answering these questions. Combining expertise from Monash and Warwick universities has created a unique alliance that enables us to take ever-stronger leadership in these international endeavours.
Complementary Strengths
Warwick University established a particle physics group in 2004 and now has significant activity in experimental particle physics but with a limited focus on theory. In contrast, the particle physics group at Monash University embarked on its journey in 2007 as a theoretical unit and later expanded into experimental endeavours in 2017. There are vital mutual interests between the Monash and Warwick particle physics groups, and our complementary strengths provide an excellent basis for collaboration from which synergies will arise.
The Alliance Particle Physics Team
For some time, there has been a collaboration between Monash and Warwick physics groups. Still, new opportunities arose when Professor Ulrik Egede moved to Monash University to start a new group on the Large Hadron Collider (LHCb) experiment. Professors Gershon and Egede had previously collaborated on LHCb, enabling discussions about a new collaboration to progress quickly, with solid support from the Alliance. The financial support allowed the project to employ students and Post Doctoral Research Associates to work directly on collaborative projects. The broader expertise of the team includes Professor Skands (Monash), a world-leading expert in the theory of hadronisation in particle collisions, who leads an international team to provide a simulation program to describe these processes and Dr. Kreps (Warwick), the top expert in the LHCb collaboration for the implementation of simulation codes in the analysis framework, and for tuning them to match the data best.
Modelling Particle Interactions
The work addresses several essential questions about how particles are produced. Many strongly interacting particles (called “hadrons”) are produced in particle colliders like the LHC at CERN. The fundamental physics processes in this hadronisation are extremely difficult to model, and a lack of knowledge in this area can impact essentially all measurements made by the experiments. Therefore, improving the modelling is extremely important, which this Alliance project is uniquely positioned to do as it combines the specialised resources and expertise from both universities.
The Necessity for Collaborations
It is becoming increasingly clear that the computing needs of extensive experiments, including those at the LHC, will not be sustainable in future. The amounts of data produced would overwhelm the available global storage, and the amount of processing required would come at an unacceptable environmental cost. This Alliance collaboration has addressed the problem, explicitly developing approaches to produce simulated data more efficiently. This has already led to further successful funding applications in both countries, with more predicted. Additionally, the Alliance-supported PhD students have benefitted from studying in both locations, giving them experience in different research cultures.
Progress and Publications
The research progress addressing hadronisation has already led to one publication (EPJ C82 (2022) 773) and several improvements in software packages that will be released publicly. Thanks to the Alliance, the Monash group has grown, with the appointment of a second academic member. This enables Monash to be a full member of the LHCb collaboration, independent of Warwick, rather than an associated member (a category used for smaller groups).
Principal Investigators
Professor Ulrik Egede
School of Physics and Astronomy, Monash Data Futures Institute, Monash University
Professor Tim Gershon
Department of Physics, Warwick LHCb group, University of Warwick