The Collaborative Research Center “Particle Physics Phenomenology after the Higgs Discovery'' is a joint venture of theoretical particle physicists from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, RWTH Aachen University, University of Siegen and Heidelberg University. It is supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG).

Particle physics has long established itself as an important research discipline focused on understanding Nature at a fundamental level. The current knowledge is summarized in a theory called the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics that describes strong and electroweak interactions. The recent discovery of the Higgs boson formally completes the SM and provides us with a consistent mathematical framework that can be used to describe Nature in fine detail. However, several aspects of the SM force us to raise questions about the foundations of this theory. Many proposed answers to these questions suggest that the SM is a low-energy approximation to a much more fundamental theory that we strive to discover.

Scientists of the CRC will conduct research in phenomenology of elementary particles focusing, in particular, on the physics of Higgs boson, physics of top quarks, electroweak gauge bosons and jets and flavour physics. Our goal is to develop the necessary methodologies to search for physics beyond the Standard Model through precise measurements at the LHC, flavour factories and elsewhere.

03.07.2020 - We would like to welcome Gudrun Heinrich (KIT) and Alexander Lenz (Siegen) as two new principal investigators of the CRC. Within the CRC, Gudrun will develop numerical methods for computing two-loop amplitudes with many mass scales and Alexander will study possible ways to constrain non-perturbative parameters that appear within the heavy quark expansion.

30.06.2020 - We have recently started the new series of talks – the CRC colloquium. The idea is to have CRC PIs talk about their current research. The first talk of the series on “How to GAN” was given by Tilman Plehn (Heidelberg) on June 30th. The second talk on “Precision Flavor physics” will be given by Tobias Huber (Siegen) on July 13th.

08.06.200 - We are happy to announce the First Young Scientists Forum of the SFB TRR 257 which will take place on June 09th, June 17th and June 23rd from 2pm - 4:30pm. The Young Scientists Forum is a series of remote seminars given by Ph.D. students and young Postocs from Aachen, Heidelberg, Karlsruhe and Siegen. It features short (12+3 minutes) presentations. The purpose of the event is to train the speakers to talk about their research in front of a large audience and to strengthen scientific collaborations during the corona lock-down.