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v3.3.2
Leona Woods Lecture. (Will be held remotely.)
Abstract:
After decades of both theoretical and experimental efforts, the Standard Model of Particle Physics is complete. While this represents an incredible achievement, we also know this is not the full story. The gaps in our understanding include the nature of dark matter and neutrino masses, as well as potential flavour anomalies and the lack of constraints for non-perturbative observables. One of the tools that physicists use to fill in some of these gaps is Lattice Field Theory. By discretising spacetime, not only is the UV behaviour of the theory rendered finite, but it also becomes well suited to numerical methods. For example, lattice methods are what allows physicists to carry out first principle explorations of the low energy spectrum of QCD. However, working at finite lattice spacing and in finite volumes carries a cost — things that we take for granted in the continuum may no longer hold. In some cases, the result is a theoretical issue, where we are simply not sure how to write down the desired theory on a discretised spacetime. Other times, what results are numerical limitations, where finite resources require the development of clever algorithms and new methodologies. In this talk, I will focus on two questions — how to implement chiral gauge theories on the lattice and how to extract scattering information from finite volume measurements — in order to demonstrate that while life on the lattice is not always simple, the payoff is very much worth it.
Leona Woods Committee