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Physics Colloquium

Thursday, February 13, 2025
4:00pm to 5:00pm
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Online and In-Person Event
Lance Dixon, The DNA of Particle Scattering, SLAC,

At the Large Hadron Collider, the copious scattering of quarks and gluons in quantum chromodynamics (QCD) produces Higgs bosons as well as many backgrounds to searches for new physics. Better theoretical precision in computing Standard Model cross sections is needed to match the improved experimental precision expected with the high-luminosity LHC upgrade.  Scattering of quarks and gluons in QCD can be evaluated in perturbation theory and leads to highly intricate, multivariate mathematical functions. To gain further insight into the structure of these functions, one can study a simpler cousin of QCD called planar N=4 SYM. The structural features of these intricate results can be decoded in a way that is analogous to sequencing DNA. Each derivative reads off a letter, like the A,T,G,C letters of the DNA code. Understanding the alphabet, and then reading the code, exposes the physics and mathematics of quantum scattering. Bizarre new symmetries have been unveiled by humans staring at this theoretical data. For example, two scattering amplitudes are secretly related to each other by reading the code backwards. The next hidden symmetries may be revealed by machine learning models "staring at" the data.

Join via Zoom:
https://caltech.zoom.us/j/89860951893
Meeting ID: 818 6692 9019

The colloquium is held in Feynman Lecture Hall, 201 E. Bridge.

For more information, please contact Denise Lu by email at deniselu@caltech.edu.