Theoretical Physics at the Intensity Frontier
In the coming years, a series of experimental efforts are expected to significantly improve our understanding of many of the most pressing unsolved questions in particle physics. This research project provides the necessary theoretical support for these experimental efforts within the so-called High Intensity Frontier, where tests of the Standard Model of particle physics and its possible extensions are carried out by precise, low-energy measurements (flavor physics, neutrinos, g-2, etc.). The theoretical predictions exploit quantum field theory as well as effective field-theoretic techniques.
Staff
Full Professors: Stefano Rigolin
Associate Professors: Paride Paradisi
Post-doc
Pablo Olgoso, Nudzeim Selimovic, Jorge Alda Gallo, Sebastian Hoof, Hector Gisbert Mullor, Philip Soerensen
PhD students
Luigi Bresciani, Gabriele Levati, Enrico Scantamburlo, Xavier Ponce Díaz
External collaborators
Luca Di Luzio (INFN), Massimo Passera (INFN), Ferruccio Feruglio.
Research activities
Anomalous Magnetic Moment of Muon
The g-2 muon experiments at Fermilab and J-PARC will measure the muon's magnetic moment with unprecedented precision and will hopefully clarify the nature of the long-standing discrepancy with the Standard Model prediction. This line of research will allow us to fully explore new physics scenarios beyond the SM that can explain possible discrepancies between SM predictions and experimental results, both for the g-2 muon and its observables.
Contacts: Di Luzio, Passera, Paradisi.
Flavor Puzzle
The flavor puzzle, i.e. the observed vast hierarchy in the charged fermions mass spectrum and flavor mixing angles, remains one of the most unexplained aspects of the Standard Model. In this research line, we explore solutions to the flavor puzzle based on the construction of explicit flavor models. The investigation of different phenomenological implications of such models will represent a powerful tool to discriminate among them.
Contacts: Rigolin, Feruglio
New Physics and Axions
Since convincing evidence for new heavy physics has not yet emerged, new physical scenarios open up. In recent years light carriers have received increasing attention from both the experimental and theoretical communities. Prominent examples are SM extensions with light pseudo-scalar bosons, which are generically referred to as axion-like particles (ALPs). We plan to explore in depth the low-energy signatures of ALPs in flavor-violating observables of quarks and leptons, in the leptonic g-2, as well as in the electric dipole moments of atomic and nuclear systems.
Contacts: Di Luzio, Paradisi, Rigolin.
Effective Field Theories and Scattering Amplitudes
Scattering Amplitudes methods have been proven to provide a powerful tool to study the renormalization group flow of gauge theories. We plan to elaborate on the application of these methods to the renormalization of Effective Field Theories relevant to particle physics. In particular, this study will provide a valuable mean to interpret experimental measurements of low-energy observables, such as flavor violating processes or electric and magnetic dipole moments, as induced by new physics emerging above the electroweak scale.
Contacts: Mastrolia, Paradisi
