Fall Bonn HEP Meeting 2024: Embracing Diversity in High Energy Physics

7 Oct 2024, 08:30 → 9 Oct 2024, 16:50 Europe/Berlin

Wegelerstr. 10 - Seminar Room 2.019 - 53115 Bonn (Bethe Center)

Poster_Fall Bonn HEP 2024_Forum.pdf

Monday, 7 October

08:30 → 09:00 Registration

09:00 → 09:15 Welcome

09:15 → 10:15 On-shell amplitudes

BCFW- 20 years later

Speaker: Ruth Britto

10:15 → 10:45 Coffee break

10:45 → 13:00 Short talks

10:45 Analytical calculations for Wttbar production at NLO

In anticipation of the full Run 3 data set and the High-Luminosity phase of the LHC, the computation of scattering amplitudes at high loop order and multiplicity is of high importance. One of the heaviest Standard Model signatures currently probed at the LHC is the production of a top-antitop quark pair in association with a W boson. It plays a crucial role in the search for physics beyond the Standard Model and is an important background for Higgs boson production in association with a top-antitop quark pair. We compute this amplitude at next-to-leading order as a form factor decomposition in the 't Hooft Veltman scheme and discuss the choice of tensor basis. We identify all topologies appearing in the one-loop Feynman integrals, provide a canonical differential equation for the master integrals, and discuss issues appearing due to the large number of scales involved.

Speaker: Sara Ditsch

Talk_Sara_Ditsch.pdf

11:10 3 loops 4 cuts: towards N3LO RRR antenna functions

The talk will present the antenna subtraction scheme and the current effort for its extension to N3LO. It will focus in particular on the initial-final antennae, where the radiating partons are both in the initial and final state. After an overview of the extension of the N2LO initial-final antennae to higher epsilon order, we will present the status for the calculation of N3LO initial-final antennae and the theoretical machinery necessary to perform this task, which includes translating phase space integrals into cuts of loop integrals, finding a canonical basis and fixing boundary conditions.

Speaker: Gaia Fontana

Talk_Fontana.pdf

11:35 Geometry in Feynman integrals

Solving Feynman integral is essential for precision physics at colliders and lately also for gravitational waves predictions. When attempting to do so, at high orders in perturbation theory interesting structures appear. In this talk, I give an introduction on how geometrical information about such structures helps us solve these integrals. To show this, I provide examples of integrals with an underlying elliptic curve and Calabi-Yau manifold.

Speaker: Sara Maggio

Talk_Sara_Maggio.pdf

12:00 From Quantum Uncertainty to Classical Spinning Black Holes

Speaker: Nathan Moynihan

Talk_NM.pdf

12:25 The Double Copy: A Duality for Particles and Gravity

An open problem in theoretical physics is to combine all four of the fundamental forces of nature into one single theory. Problematically, gravity has proven difficult to reconcile with the other forces. Recently, relationships between scattering amplitudes (the quantity related to the probability for an interaction to occur between two or more particles) in non-abelian gauge theories (such as the theory of quarks and gluons) and theories of quantum gravity have led to the discovery of a relation known as the double copy. First observed in string theory, the double copy relates scattering amplitudes in quantum gravity to their counterparts for those in non-abelian gauge theories. This property has been extended to relate solutions in classical electromagnetism with those in general relativity, via a theory known as the classical double copy. As a tool, the double copy has been invaluable for deriving results in gravity, that otherwise would be harder or impossible to do from first principles.

Speaker: Kymani Armstrong-Williams

Talk_Kymani_Armstrong_WIlliams.pdf

13:00 → 14:00 Lunch

14:00 → 15:00 Life outside academia as a physicist

Speaker: Sophia Borowka

15:00 → 15:30 Coffee break

15:30 → 16:30 The tragic destiny of Mileva Marić Einstein

What were Albert Einstein's first wife’s contributions to his extraordinary productivity in the first years of his career? A first biography of Mileva Marić Einstein was published in Serbian in 1969 but remained largely unknown despite being translated first in German, then in French in the 1990’s. The publication of Mileva and Albert’s love letters in 1987 revealed how they lived together while two recent publications shed more light on Mileva Marić’s life and work. I will review this evidence in its social and historical context to give a better idea of her contributions. In this presentation, I avoid all type of speculation and do not attack Albert Einstein personally, but rather strictly stick to facts. The audience will be able to appreciate why such a talented physicist has been so unkindly treated by history.

Speaker: Pauline Gagnon

16:30 → 18:00 Poster session and reception

Tuesday, 8 October

09:00 → 10:00 Pedagogical talk

Speaker: Teresa Marrodán Undagoitia

10:00 → 10:30 Coffee break

10:30 → 13:00 Short talks

10:30 Inclusive Semileptonic Decay of the $D_s$ Meson from Lattice QCD

We analyse the semileptonic decay of the $D_s$ meson, focusing on the $D_s \to X \ell \nu$ channel based on Extended Twisted mass ensembles at the physical pion mass value.
On the basis of four-point correlation functions, we use the HLT reconstruction method to calculate the differential decay rate, allowing us to analyse the inclusive decay.
The analysis is performed at four different lattice spacings, and three different volumes to address the associated systematic uncertainties.

Speaker: Christiane Gross

Talk_Christiane_Gross.pdf

10:55 AI Alignment: Problem of Diversity & Physics

The AI Alignment Problem involves aligning AI behavior with human intentions, addressing both technical and ethical concerns. In the first part of my talk, I exemplify the AI Alignment problem in the context of gender inequality in GPT4o. The AI Alignment problem effects also particle physics, where AI is essential for tasks like event tagging or event generation, and has the potential to enable frontier precision predictions in the standard model. Therefore, ensuring reliability of AI systems is crucial for the future development of particle phyiscs.
To avoid unaligned behavior, benchmarks are typically used to assess the performance of AI models. However, benchmarks are insufficient to assure aligned AI systems. A particular failure mode is strategic underperformance on benchmarks, leading to misaligned behavior of the AI during deployment. In the second part of my talk, I present a novel experiment inspired by deep learning theories rooted in physics to detect this type of underperformance.

Speaker: Phillip Kreer

Talk_Philipp_Kreer.pdf

11:20 Probing the QGP: Recent Advances in Heavy-Flavour Physics with ALICE at the LHC

The ALICE experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is a leading tool for studying Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP), a state of matter that existed shortly after the Big Bang. While heavy-ion collisions, particularly lead-lead (Pb-Pb), remain the primary method for probing QGP, ALICE also investigates proton- proton (pp) and proton-lead (p-Pb) collisions to explore reference data, small system effects, and collective phenomena in different collision environments.
Heavy quarks, namely charm and beauty quarks, play a crucial role in these studies. Due to their large masses, they are produced predominantly in the initial stages of the collision via hard-parton scatterings, making them valuable probes of the early system dynamics. In particular, their interactions with the hot and dense QGP provide insights into the medium’s properties, such as its temperature, density, and transport coefficients. Measuring heavy-flavor pro- duction in proton-proton (pp) collisions serves as an essential baseline for per- turbative QCD (pQCD) predictions, while comparisons with proton-lead (p–Pb) and lead-lead (Pb–Pb) collisions allow researchers to disentangle cold nuclear matter effects from hot QGP effects.
This contribution presents an overview of recent ALICE results on open heavy-flavor production in pp, p–Pb, and Pb–Pb collision systems, with a fo- cus on how these measurements advance our understanding of QGP formation, heavy-quark energy loss mechanisms, and the interaction of heavy quarks with the QCD medium.

Speaker: Samrangy Sadhu

Talk_Samrangy.pdf

11:45 Higgs portal long-lived particle searches at the FCC-hh

The Higgs portal to BSM is very well motivated both theoretically and experimentally. We study long-lived BSM particles in the Higgs portal model, produced either from the decay of a B-meson or the Higgs boson. We discuss the search for these particles at future colliders, like the 100 TeV future collider experiment. Given the need to optimise the designs of dedicated LLP detectors for future colliders, we propose dedicated LLP detector designs for the 100 TeV collider experiment, DELIGHT (Detector for long-lived particles at high energy of 100 TeV) and FOREHUNT (FORward Experiment for HUNdred TeV), and study their sensitivities for LLPs in the Higgs portal.

Speaker: Rhitaja Sengupta

Talk_rhitaja.pdf

12:10 Tensor Reduction for high-rank multi-loop Integrals

A vital step in multi-loop Feynman integral calculations is tensor reduction. We present an efficient graphical approach to this problem and introduce OPITeR a code that implements this method for arbitrary tensor Feynman integrals. OPITeR can handle integrals of arbitrary loop up to tensor rank 20 with any number of spin indices. We present some applications in the context of R* renormalization calculations as well as asymptotic / subgraph expansions in momentum space, where high-rank tensors are frequently encountered.

Speaker: Sam Teale

Talk_Sam_Teale.pdf

13:00 → 14:00 Lunch

14:00 → 15:00 Funding for early career scientists

Speaker: Claude Duhr

15:00 → 15:30 Coffee break

15:30 → 16:00 Addressing diversity, equity and inclusion in large collaborations - an example

In 2020, the MAGIC collaboration launched an initiative aimed at enhancing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) among its members. A key effort of this initiative was the distribution of a survey to all MAGIC members, designed to assess the current state of DEI and identify potential challenges or opportunities in these areas. Since then, three surveys have been conducted addressing topics such as demographics, working conditions, recognition, harassment, bullying, and discrimination. I will present the methodology and strategy behind these surveys, along with an overview of their impact within the collaboration and the actions taken as a direct response to the findings. I hope to inspire the audience to start similar initiatives in other collaborations.

Speaker: Juliane von Scherpenberg

DEI in MAGIC - Bethe Forum.pdf

16:00 → 17:00 What's wrong with me?

Why are sexism, homophobia and racism still so prevalent in physics? I start from my personal experience to demonstrate that in fact the personal is political. CERN, the largest physics laboratory in the world, welcomes scientists from 112 nationalities but still about 80% of them are white and 80% are male. I examine why people from so many various groups have been historically excluded from physics and suggest a series of easily applicable measures that could greatly improve diversity in physics. These measures would benefit all scientists, regardless of their gender, race, sexual orientation, physical ability or religion. It has been established that diversity benefits science by increasing the creativity potential, a key ingredient in scientific research.

Speaker: Pauline Gagnon

20:00 → 22:00 Movie screening: Picture a scientist

Wednesday, 9 October

09:30 → 11:00 Diversity in Science - Gender and Diversity in German Academia

11:00 → 11:15 Coffee break

11:15 → 12:45 Diversity in Science - Gender and Diversity in German Academia

12:45 → 13:45 Lunch

13:45 → 14:30 Diversity in Science - Gender and Diversity in German Academia

14:30 → 14:45 Coffee break

14:45 → 16:00 Diversity in Science - Gender and Diversity in German Academia