The detailed scrutiny of the Higgs boson and other searches for subtle deviations from the Standard Model of particle physics are reliant on increasingly intricate and precise measurements and theoretical calculations. Numerous examples show that perturbative Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) computations with percent-level precision are essential to understanding the massive amount of data being produced by experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), but achieving predictions at this precision is an enormous theoretical and computational challenge.

For this INCITE project, researchers will use the N-jettiness framework, a novel approach to precision perturbative QCD calculations. The framework enables the efficient use of high-performance computing systems to perform computations needed to interpret increasingly precise data from the LHC and future colliders. The team’s approach has already led to some of the first high-precision QCD predictions for several benchmark LHC processes, and the first comprehensive comparison of high-precision QCD predictions to jet data at the LHC. The combination of DOE supercomputers and the N-jettiness framework has made these prohibitively difficult calculations possible, and there is great potential for similar rapid progress in other areas.

The team’s calculations will address several of the most pressing LHC needs for precision predictions, and will help answer some of the most significant questions facing particle physics. The researchers will also demonstrate that the N-jettiness framework can meet the precision goals set by future colliders by providing the first high-precision predictions for jet production in electron-ion collisions. Ultimately, results from this project will advance our knowledge of nature at the smallest scales and may reveal deviations between measurements and the Standard Model of particle physics.