Project description
Nailing down a force carrier’s mass lifts the standard model to new heights
The standard model of particle physics is a theory describing the fundamental particles that make up our universe and how they interact. Developed in the 1970s based on information available at the time, the theory explains a lot – but not all. The mass of the W boson, discovered in 1983, is a key parameter of the standard model and its precise measurement has important implications for the ways in which the standard model could be extended to explain some of the things it currently misses. The EU-funded SPEAR project plans to measure the mass for the first time, exploiting data from a unique and unprecedented experiment at a Hadron Collider. Insight could add important pieces to the puzzle of our particle universe, resolving long-standing mysteries and differences between predictions and reality.
Objective
The Standard Model (SM) is widely accepted to be an approximation of a more complete theory of nature, but laboratory tests have failed to identify a conclusive deviation from its precise predictions. In the SM two of the four fundamental forces of nature, namely the electromagnetic and weak nuclear forces, are governed by three fundamental parameters. These parameters are precisely fixed by experimental determinations of the Z boson mass, the fine structure constant, and the Fermi constant. Other parameters are subsequently predictable and can therefore be confronted with experimental data, potentially exposing physics effects beyond the SM. Of notable importance are the W boson mass and the weak-mixing angle since these two parameters are not yet measured as precisely as they are predicted. A delicate feature of the SM, which could easily be perturbed by new physics, is the universality between the coupling strengths of the three known lepton generations to the gauge bosons. There is an intriguing set of beauty hadron measurements which suggest a violation of lepton universality, with a particularly large effect in the third generation. While inconclusive at this stage these results intensify the demand for a test of a potentially related anomaly in the partial decay width of the W boson to third generation leptons. Qualitatively new ideas are needed to tackle these scientific problems. LHCb is the first experiment of its kind, as a small-angle spectrometer detector at a hadron collider, and the SPEAR project is well timed to analyse existing data from LHCb and the full dataset from the first running period with the LHCb upgrade. The SPEAR project sets ambitious goals of (i) measuring the W mass for the first time with a small-angle spectrometer (ii), making the first weak mixing angle determination at a hadron collider that matches the precision of electron-positron colliders, and (iii) resolving the long-standing W boson lepton universality puzzle.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
- natural sciences physical sciences theoretical physics particle physics leptons
- natural sciences physical sciences theoretical physics particle physics particle accelerator
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.1.1. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
ERC-COG - Consolidator Grant
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2019-COG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
CV4 8UW COVENTRY
United Kingdom
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.