Friday 13 March, 11.15h, at the Colloquium room at Nikhef
Speaker: Maria Ubiali (Cambridge University)
Title: “Precision Physics at the LHC and Beyond”
Abstract:
The unprecedented precision achieved by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has transformed hadron collider physics into a high-precision laboratory for testing the Standard Model (SM) and probing new physics. In this regime, theoretical uncertainties play an increasingly central role.
In this talk, I will discuss recent developments in theoretical predictions at the LHC, with particular emphasis on parton distribution functions (PDFs), which parametrize the subnuclear structure of the proton. I will describe their impact on precision phenomenology and searches for physics beyond the Standard Model (BSM) and show how modern statistical and machine learning techniques enable a flexible and robust determination of PDFs from global collider data. I will also focus on the interplay between proton structure and new physics searches, showing how standard PDF fitting procedures may partially absorb or distort potential signals in high-energy observables.
Finally, I will outline a program towards a fully Bayesian analysis of PDFs and SM and BSM parameters. This approach provides improved control over prior assumptions and consistently incorporates correlations among intrinsically connected quantities. Such a unified framework is essential for fully exploiting current LHC data and for preparing for the precision frontier of the High-Luminosity LHC and future colliders.
More info about the National Seminar Theoretical High Energy Physics
This colloquium will be hybrid:
