The following research projects will be undertaken by the SAGEX Early Stage Researchers:<\/p>\n
Project 1: Form factors and Higgs amplitudes from N = 4 super Yang-Mills to QCD<\/strong><\/p>\n Institute:<\/strong> Queen Mary University of London<\/a><\/p>\n Objectives<\/strong>: Scattering amplitudes in QCD involving a Higgs boson and several gluons have fascinating connections to much simpler quantities, namely form factors of protected operators in N = 4 SYM. Project 1 will explore this connection in two ways: firstly, by studying form factors with four particles (corresponding to Higgs + four-gluon processes); and then by performing an analysis of the corrections due to the finiteness of the top quark mass, which can be described in the language of effective field theory, and correspond to form factors of higher-dimensional operators in N = 4 SYM.<\/p>\n ESR<\/strong>: Manuel Accettulli Huber. Expected results:<\/strong> Calculation of four-point form factor of half-BPS operators and three-point form factors of unprotected dimension six operators at two loops in N = 4 SYM; related calculations of Higgs amplitudes, including finite top-mass effects, in QCD and a comparison with N = 4 SYM.<\/p>\n Planned Secondments<\/strong>: Three months to Wolfram Research<\/a>; short term visits to other network members (ETH Zurich<\/a>, University of Copenhagen<\/a>). Further secondment at Danske Bank<\/a>, DreamQuark<\/a>, Maersk Tankers<\/a>, or Milde Marketing<\/a>.<\/p>\n Institute:\u00a0<\/strong>Queen Mary University of London<\/a> ESR<\/strong>: Stefano De Angelis. Expected results:<\/b> Initially, compute complete one-loop form factors of operators built of the \ufb01eld strength in gauge theories and study effects of curvature squared terms on the scattering of massive scalar particles in gravity; then extend the study of gravitational scattering to include more general deformations and spinning particles.<\/p>\n Planned Secondments:<\/strong> Three months to Maplesoft<\/a>; short term visits to other network members (Humboldt University<\/a>, Oxford University<\/a>). Further secondment at Danske Bank<\/a>, DreamQuark<\/a>, Maersk Tankers<\/a>, or Milde Marketing<\/a>.<\/p>\n Institute: <\/strong>Humboldt University Berlin<\/a> ESR: <\/strong>Canxin Shi Milestones and expected results<\/strong>: Establish a double-copy procedure for the classical effective two-body potential in the post-Minkowskian and post-Newtonian expansion. Extend this to the three-body case. Clarify the nature of the double copy for gauge theories coupled to massive particles of any spin. Establish strategies to project out the dilaton. Deduce lessons from this for the structure of the kinematical algebra.<\/p>\n Planned Secondments<\/strong>: Three months to Wolfram Research<\/a>; short term visits to other network members (University of Copenhagen<\/a>, Trinity College Dublin<\/a>). Further secondment at Danske Bank<\/a>, DreamQuark<\/a>, Maersk Tankers<\/a> or Milde Marketing<\/a>.<\/p>\n Institute: <\/strong>Humboldt University Berlin<\/a> ESR: <\/strong>Luke Corcoran Milestones and expected results<\/strong>: Test and extend the integrable systems description of planar amplitudes and correlation functions in N = 4 SYM in examples with the aim of extracting kinematics directly from integrability; study in detail the octagon operator for four-point functions.<\/p>\n Planned Secondments<\/strong>: Three months to Maplesoft<\/a>; short term visits to other network members (Durham University<\/a>, Oxford University<\/a>). Further secondment at Danske Bank<\/a>, DreamQuark<\/a>, Maersk Tankers<\/a>, or Milde Marketing<\/a>.<\/p>\n Institute: <\/strong>DESY<\/a> ESR<\/strong>: Lorenzo Quintavalle. Expected results:<\/strong> Construction of dual superconformal partial waves for the expansion of light-like Wilson loops.<\/p>\n Planned Secondments<\/strong>: Three months to Maplesoft<\/a>; short term visits to other network members (Durham University<\/a>, University of Copenhagen<\/a>). Further secondment at Danske Bank<\/a>, DreamQuark<\/a>, Maersk Tankers<\/a>, or Milde Marketin<\/a>g.<\/p>\n Institute: <\/strong>DESY<\/a> ESR<\/strong>: Marco Saragnese. Expected results<\/strong>: Calculations of phase-space integrals for 2 -> 2 for massless and massive particles; a systematic extension of this, developing efficient methods for 2 -> n (n= 2, 3, 4).<\/p>\n Planned Secondments:<\/strong> Three months to RISC Software GmbH<\/a>; short term visits to network partner University of Hamburg<\/a>. Further secondment at Danske Bank<\/a>, DreamQuark<\/a>, Maersk Tankers<\/a>, or Milde Marketing<\/a>.<\/p>\n Institute: <\/strong>Durham University<\/a> ESR<\/strong>: Gabriele Dian. Expected results<\/strong>: A generalised polytope interpretation for correlators and amplitudes at tree level for four- and five-point examples; development of a systematic understanding for higher loops and more legs.<\/p>\n Planned Secondments:<\/strong> Three months to Wolfram Research<\/a>; short term visits to other network members (ETH Zurich<\/a>, University of Copenhagen<\/a>). Further secondment at Danske Bank<\/a>, DreamQuark<\/a>, Maersk Tankers<\/a>, or Milde Marketing<\/a>.<\/p>\n Institute: <\/strong>Durham University<\/a> ESR<\/strong>: Davide Polvara. Expected results<\/strong>: Link integrability to miraculous Feynman diagram cancellations in tractable two-dimensional models, first at tree and then one-loop level; generalise to higher loops and identify underlying structures.<\/p>\n Planned Secondments:<\/strong> Three months to Maplesoft<\/a>; short term visits to other network members (University of Copenhagen<\/a>, Trinity College Dublin<\/a>). Further secondment at Danske Bank<\/a>, DreamQuark<\/a>, Maersk Tankers<\/a>, or Milde Marketing<\/a>.<\/p>\n Institute: <\/strong>CEA Saclay<\/a> ESR<\/strong>: Ingrid Angelica Vasquez Holm. Expected results<\/strong>: Establish new multi-loop-level recursion relations, starting with finite-colour theories at four-point one-loop; this will subsequently be extended to higher loops and legs with the goal of recursing up to three-loops.<\/p>\n Planned Secondments<\/strong>: Three months to Wolfram Research<\/a>; short term visits to other network members (Queen Mary University of London<\/a>, UCLA<\/a>). Further secondment at Danske Bank<\/a>, DreamQuark<\/a>, Maersk Tankers<\/a>, or Milde Marketing<\/a>.<\/p>\n Institute: <\/strong>CEA Saclay<\/a> ESR<\/strong>: Sebastian P\u00f6gel. Expected results<\/strong>: Results for selected two-loop amplitudes; unitarity techniques for two-loop amplitudes; software implementation for two-loop integrals.<\/p>\n Planned Secondments: <\/strong>Three months to RISC Software GmbH<\/a>; short term visits to other network members (DESY<\/a>, SLAC<\/a>) Further secondment at Danske Bank<\/a>, DreamQuark<\/a>, Maersk Tankers<\/a>, or Milde Marketing<\/a>.<\/p>\n Institute: <\/strong>University of Copenhagen<\/a> ESR<\/strong>: Andrea Cristofoli. Expected results:<\/strong> Initially relationships of scattering equations (CHY) to KLT, Grassmannian and Amplituhedron formalisms will be established at tree level; then this will be promoted to loop level and practical tools to evaluate scattering equations at loop level will be investigated.<\/p>\n Planned Secondments<\/strong>: Three months to Maplesoft<\/a>; short term visits to other network members (DESY, Queen Mary University of London<\/a>). Further secondment at Danske Bank<\/a>, DreamQuark<\/a>, Maersk Tankers<\/a>, or Milde Marketing<\/a>.<\/p>\n Institute: <\/strong>University of Copenhagen<\/a> ESR<\/strong>: Kays Haddad. Expected results<\/strong>: Effective Field Theory methods developed for the Standard Model will be extended to include gravity, in particular as regards Heavy Quark Effective Field Theory. Relations between Standard Model amplitudes and amplitudes involving gravitons will also be exploited through use of so-called double-copy relations.<\/p>\n Planned Secondments<\/strong>: Three months to Wolfram Research<\/a>; short term visits to other partners (CEA Saclay<\/a>, Queen Mary University of London<\/a>). Further secondment at Danske Bank<\/a>, DreamQuark<\/a>, Maersk Tankers<\/a>, or Milde Marketing<\/a>.<\/p>\n Institute: <\/strong>Trinity College Dublin<\/a> ESR<\/strong>: Anne Spiering. Expected results<\/strong>: First, find a relation between double-soft limits and asymptotic symmetry algebra for gauge bosons and gravitons for tree amplitudes; next extend these results to loop level and develop a generalised “inverse-soft” construction of amplitudes.<\/p>\n Planned Secondments:<\/strong> Three months to Maplesoft<\/a>; short term visits to other partners (Humboldt University<\/a>, UCLA<\/a>). Further secondment at Danske Bank<\/a>, DreamQuark<\/a>, Maersk Tankers<\/a>, or Milde Marketing<\/a>.<\/p>\n Institute: <\/strong>Trinity College Dublin<\/a> ESR<\/strong>: Riccardo Gonzo. Expected results:<\/strong> First, analyse several known amplitudes in order to identify useful variables and uncover hidden structures. Then, formulate underlying principles and relations on which to base future computations.<\/p>\n Planned Secondments:<\/strong> Three months to Wolfram Research<\/a>; short term visits to other partners (Durham University<\/a>, Humboldt University<\/a>). Further secondment at Danske Bank<\/a>, DreamQuark<\/a>, Maersk Tankers<\/a>, or Milde Marketing<\/a>.<\/p>\n Institute: <\/strong>RISC\/RISC Software GmbH<\/a> ESR: <\/strong>Nikolai Fadeev.<\/p>\n First supervisor:<\/strong>\u00a0Carsten Schneider. Expected results<\/strong>: First, write new freely available Mathematica packages for summation and integration and apply these to SAGEX problems. Second, explore new classes of special (e.g. elliptic) functions, and extend the Mathematica packages to cover these cases.<\/p>\n Planned Secondments<\/strong>: 2 months at DESY<\/a> to complement computer algebra training with relevant physics; 3 months at Wolfram Research<\/a>. Short-term visits to University of Hamburg<\/a>, Danske Bank<\/a>, DreamQuark<\/a>, Maersk Tankers<\/a>, or Milde Marketing<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Research projects The following research projects will be undertaken by the SAGEX Early Stage Researchers: Project 1: Form factors and Higgs amplitudes from N = 4 super Yang-Mills to QCD Institute: Queen Mary University of London Objectives: Scattering amplitudes in QCD involving a Higgs boson and several gluons have fascinating connections to much simpler quantities, … <\/p>\n
First supervisor<\/strong>: Gabriele Travaglini.
Second supervisor<\/strong>: Chris White.
Mentor<\/strong>: Jan Plefka.<\/p>\nProject 2: Form factors in gauge theories and amplitudes in effective theories of gravity<\/h6>\n
Objectives<\/strong>: This project has two goals: \ufb01rst, it aims to advance our understanding of form factors in gauge theories which can be thought of as amplitudes in effective theories or extensions of the standard model. Secondly, closely related techniques will be used to study the classical and quantum scattering of massive objects in gravity with a focus on effects due to higher-derivative terms and spin. This problem is intimately linked to the gravitational two-body problem and of relevance to gravitational wave physics.<\/p>\n
First supervisor<\/strong>: Andreas Brandhuber.
Second supervisor<\/strong>: Chris White.
Mentor<\/strong>: Matthias Staudacher.<\/p>\nProject 3: Colour-kinematic duality applied to classical relativity, massive particles and the kinematic algebra<\/h6>\n
Objectives<\/strong>: The colour-kinematic duality is a highly nontrivial property relating gauge and gravity amplitudes. Gravitational amplitudes can then be miraculously found by simply replacing colour factors in Yang-Mills amplitudes with kinematic ones. However, the algebraic underpinnings of this hidden kinematic algebra are largely unknown. In parallel, the applicability of the double-copy method to classical gravitational waves physics shall be pursued. Prominently, the two and three body problem shall be studied.<\/p>\n
First supervisor<\/strong>: Jan Plefka.
Second supervisor<\/strong>: Johannes Broedel.
Mentor<\/strong>: Tristan McLoughlin.<\/p>\nProject 4: Integrability for amplitudes and correlators<\/h6>\n
Objectives<\/strong>: Correlation functions in N = 4 SYM in a light-like limit yield amplitudes. Recently, integrable system descriptions for planar amplitudes and correlators have been proposed; the two approaches are closely related. A first aim is to better understand the integrability properties of Feynman integrals relevant to the construction of correlators and amplitudes. This is to be studied first on specific examples at lower loops, then extending then to higher loops. The goal is to obtain non-trivial kinematics directly from integrability, starting with four-point functions of stress-tensor multiplets.<\/p>\n
First supervisor<\/strong>: Matthias Staudacher.
Second supervisor<\/strong>: Johannes Broedel.
Mentor<\/strong>: Lionel Mason.<\/p>\nProject 5: Superblock expansions for N=4 scattering amplitudes<\/h6>\n
Objectives<\/strong>: The goal is to study new expansions four-dimensional N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory at loop level and their factorization properties.\u00a0<\/p>\n
First supervisor<\/strong>: Volker Schomerus.
Second supervisor<\/strong>: Georgios Papathanasiou.
Mentor<\/strong>: Arthur Lipstein.<\/p>\nProject 6: Differential equations for phase-space integrals and Cutkosky rules<\/h6>\n
Objectives<\/strong>: Computation of phase-space integrals for 2 -> n scattering processes of massless and massive particles, as needed for high-precision predictions at the LHC. Established techniques for higher-loop integrals include the method of differential equations and systematic ways to integrate the Laurent expansion in the parameter \u00a0of dimensional regularisation in terms of e.g. hyperlogarithms over a given alphabet of words. Much less systematic work has been performed for phase-space integrals for high multiplicities of the final state, and this project aims to close this gap.<\/p>\n
First supervisor<\/strong>: Johannes Bluemlein.
Second supervisor:<\/strong> Sven Moch.
Mentor<\/strong>: Carsten Schneider.<\/p>\nProject 7: Amplitudes and correlation functions as generalised polytopes<\/h6>\n
Objectives<\/strong>: The Amplituhedron gives a description of planar amplitudes in N = 4 SYM as a purely geometrical object, generalising the volume of a polytope in an extended twistor space. Correlation functions of gauge-invariant operators in N = 4 SYM are intimately related to planar amplitudes, giving them in multiple lightlike limits. Furthermore loop-level integrands are equivalent to higher-point tree-level correlators. The project will investigate and generalise this geometric structure both for correlators and amplitudes.<\/p>\n
First supervisor<\/strong>: Paul Heslop.
Second supervisor:<\/strong>\u00a0Arthur Lipstein.
Mentor<\/strong>: John Joseph Carrasco.<\/p>\nProject 8: Perturbative simplicity in lower dimensions<\/h6>\n
Objectives<\/strong>: The exact S-matrices for a variety of integrable quantum field theories in two dimensions have been known for many years. These theories can often also be studied perturbatively using standard Feynman diagrams, where the integrability manifests itself in a priori surprising cancellations and simplifications, whose underlying mechanism is still ill-understood. This project will look at this phenomenon for affine Toda field theories, where hints of deeper structure already exist in, for example, the relationship between on-shell diagrams for singularities in amplitudes to planar projections of certain higher-dimensional polytopes. Our study will be firstly performed at tree level and then extended to loops.<\/p>\n
First supervisor:<\/strong>\u00a0Patrick Dorey.
Second supervisor<\/strong>: Paul Heslop.
Mentor<\/strong>: Tristan McLoughlin.<\/p>\nProject 9: Local loop-level recursion for nonplanar theories<\/h6>\n
Objectives:<\/strong> It is known through generalised unitarity methods that tree-level data encodes all necessary information for all-loop quantisation. Promoting this to analytic loop-level recursion would engender all-loop order insight through analysis of tree-level data, as well as providing a natural non-planar generalisation of the amplituhedron. For this to be useful for phenomenological theories, results must be amiable to integration and lining up with potential integral basis. This means achieving local representations. Here the power of the colour-kinematics to relate non-planar and planar information in a local graph basis has tremendous promise. It is likely sufficient to require colour-kinematics only up to edges privileged by recursion.<\/p>\n
First supervisor<\/strong>: John Joseph Carrasco.
Second supervisor:<\/strong>\u00a0Pierre Vanhove.
Mentor<\/strong>: Zvi Bern.<\/p>\nProject 10: Two-loop QCD amplitudes for next-to-next-to-leading order calculations at the LHC<\/h6>\n
Objectives<\/strong>: Future studies at the LHC will require precision calculations at the next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) in perturbative QCD, for processes with external quarks, gluons, electroweak vector bosons, photons, and Higgs bosons. The project will develop unitarity-based approaches for two-loop amplitudes. It will include the development of a new approach to two-loop integrals.<\/p>\n
First supervisor:<\/strong>\u00a0David Kosower.
Second supervisor:<\/strong>\u00a0John Joseph Carrasco.
Mentor<\/strong>: Lance Dixon.<\/p>\nProject 11: Scattering equations, kinematic algebra and tree and loop amplitudes<\/h6>\n
Objectives<\/strong>: We will investigate the CHY formalism, realising explicit links to other insightful representations, e.g. the string-based Bern-Kosower rules, the Grassmannian and Amplituhedron formalism by Arkani-Hamed et al, and ambitwistor strings. We will also investigate how scattering equations can be best employed in practical computations, e.g. using the newly developed concepts of Q-cuts and integration rules for scattering equations. Connections between KLT and BCJ\/monodromy relations will be studied with the goal of finding a kinematic algebra for amplitudes valid at tree level, first, and then loop level.<\/p>\n
First supervisor:<\/strong>\u00a0Poul Damgaard
Second supervisor:<\/strong>\u00a0Michele Levi
Mentor<\/strong>: Jan Plefka.<\/p>\nProject 12: Applications of amplitude results in effective field theory<\/h6>\n
Objectives<\/strong>: Several powerful amplitude techniques will be applied to effective field theoretic formulations of the Standard Model, as well as extensions including gravity. In particular we will systematically exploit the use of heavy-quark effective field theory in this setting to extract classical information from scattering amplitudes. Double-copy relations between Standard Model amplitudes and those with gravitons will be used to provide a new framework for the post-Minkowskian perturbative expansion. Lessons learned from modern approaches to higher-spin effective operators will also be exploited in combination with on-shell recursion and unitarity cuts to compute classical amplitudes at tree and loop levels.<\/p>\n
First supervisor<\/strong>: Poul Damgaard.
Second supervisor<\/strong>: Emil Bjerrum-Bohr.
Mentor<\/strong>: Andreas Brandhuber.<\/p>\nProject 13: Soft limits and symmetries in perturbative gauge theory and gravity<\/h6>\n
Objectives<\/strong>: How can the symmetries of gauge and gravitational theories can be used to constrain the form of amplitudes and form factors? Spontaneously broken symmetries are related to universal limits of amplitudes where one or more of the particles becomes soft. Our aim is to have a transparent formulation of the connection between symmetries and soft limits in a broad context of quantum field theories. A specific goal will be to understand to what extent such soft limits can be used to determine complete amplitudes in N = 4 SYM and N = 8 supergravity, first at tree and then loop level.<\/p>\n
First supervisor<\/strong>: Tristan McLoughlin.
Second supervisor<\/strong>: Ruth Britto.
Mentor<\/strong>: Chris White.<\/p>\nProject 14: Perturbative amplitude computations and integrability<\/h6>\n
Objectives:<\/strong> The functions appearing in Yang-Mills theory are highly constrained, most notably with a high degree of supersymmetry. The aim is to describe the space of allowed functions, in view of physical constraints and integrability, and to characterise the functions in a way that leads to efficient computations. We will study properties of individual Feynman integrals and the nature of cancellations that take place in their sum.<\/p>\n
First supervisor:<\/strong>\u00a0Ruth Britto.
Second supervisor:<\/strong>\u00a0Tristan McLoughlin.
Mentor:<\/strong>\u00a0Patrick Dorey.<\/p>\nProject 15: Computer algebra for special functions<\/strong><\/h6>\n
Objectives<\/strong>: Many problems in SAGEX can be formulated as huge sums of complicated integrals or as strongly-coupled systems of difference\/differential equations. Our goal is to discover better representations of these and extract the desired physical information. There are two key subtasks: 1. To generalise the existing summation\/integration algorithms and recurrence\/differential equation solvers to handle not only indefinite nested sums and integrals, but also elliptic functions. 2. To extend our symbolic toolbox for special functions to compute asymptotic expansions needed to handle functions in current and future calculations.<\/p>\n
Second supervisor:<\/strong>\u00a0Peter Paule.
Mentor<\/strong>: Johannes Bluemlein.<\/p>\n