MSCA

CLOUD-DOC: CLOUD Doctoral Network

CLOUD-DOC is a network of 12 early-stage researchers (ESRs, all PhD students) investigating the role of aerosol nucleation for atmospheric aerosols, clouds and climate. 10 of the ESRs are financed by Horizon Europe MSCA. CLOUD-DOC runs from September 2022 to August 2026. The focus of investigations is to study under well-controlled laboratory conditions the oxidation chemistry, aerosol nucleation and growth processes that are responsible for aerosol particle formation. Major research activity of the network is two sets of joint experiments carried out at the CLOUD aerosol chamber at CERN to which all ESRs contribute. At the CLOUD chamber nucleation experiments are performed at an unprecedented level of precision and completeness using highly innovative instrumentation.

Coordinator: JOHANN WOLFGANG GOETHE-UNIVERSITAET FRANKFURT AM MAIN

Scientist in Charge from CERN: Antti Tero Olavi ONNELA

EU funding: € 2 673 691,20

EU funding for CERN: € 297 626,40

Date: 01/09/2022 - 31/08/2026

ColdPbar: Cold antiProtons for Better Antimatter Research

The matter-antimatter asymmetry is a major unsolved problem in physics: Why do we live in a universe dominated by matter although physics tells us that equal amounts of matter and antimatter have been created at the Big Bang? The AEgIS project at CERN aims at studying this problem by measuring the gravitational acceleration of antihydrogen and searching for any deviation from ordinary matter. However, the sensitivity of these measurements is limited by the thermal motion of antiprotons from which antihydrogen is formed. The antiproton temperature could be lowered drastically through thermalization with laser-cooled ions. Laser-cooling, however, has never been realized with negative ions, as needed for cooling antiprotons. The goal of the project ColdPbar is to demonstrate laser cooling of the diatomic carbon anion. To reach this challenging goal, we use an interdisciplinary approach, employing the tool-box of molecular and atomic physics to address a problem of antimatter research.

Coordinator: CERN

Scientist in Charge from CERN: Fellow: Matthias Germann / Supervisor: Michael DOSER

EU funding:€ 210 789,12

EU funding for CERN: € 210 789,12

Date: 01/09/2023 - 31/08/2025

EAJADE: Europe-America-Japan Accelerator Development and Exchange Programme

EAJADE aims to strengthen common use of beam and test facilities, technologies and expertise, by seconding experts, staff and students, to laboratories and institutes, where one can most efficiently carry out R&D studies of specific methods and technology solutions, going across the boundaries between the large Higgs-factory collaborations, e.g. for FCC-ee, ILC or CLIC.

The goals are R&D and training of young researchers in topics related to studies of potential future Higgs factories, making use of secondments to key facilities in the US and Japan to access and make use of beamlines and/or test-facilities in these facilities.

Coordinator: DESY

Scientist in Charge from CERN: Steinar STAPNES

EU funding: € 1 398 400,00

EU funding for CERN: € 243 800,00

Date: 01/03/2023 - 28/02/2027

HiCoLat: High-precision computations on fine lattices

The test of the Standard Model of particle physics in high precision observables relies on theoretically determined model predictions. Lattice QCD is the only method to compute these in the low-energy, hadronic regime of the theory of strong interactions of particles and fields from first principles. HiCoLat aims to enhance the precision of Standard Model predictions based on lattice QCD, specifically for observables related to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon and heavy flavor physics.

Coordinator: CERN

Scientist in Charge from CERN: Fellow: Simon Kuberski & Supervisor: Andreas JUTTNER

EU funding: € 210 789,12

EU funding for CERN: € 210 789,12

Date: 01/10/2023 - 30/09/2025

PHOBIDE: Phenomenology of B-meson semileptonic inclusive decays: from the Standard Model to the New Physics

The project PHOBIDE focuses on semileptonic B-meson decays proceeding via b→c and b→u transitions. These processes are widely studied by B factories and the LHC to determine Vcb and Vub, two of the elements of the CKM matrix. There is a long-standing tension affecting both Vcb and Vub determinations from inclusive and exclusive decays. Their possible origin from new physics beyond the Standard Model has been scrutinized in the context of exclusive decays while the inclusive modes have never been used as competitive probes of new physics. In this project we will establish the theoretical foundation for the study of non-standard interactions in inclusive semileptonic decays driven by b→c and b→u transitions. The goal of the project is to perform a comprehensive model-independent analysis of the constraints on new physics from this class of decays, including for the first time all available data on kinematic differential distributions.

Coordinator: CERN

Scientist in Charge from CERN: Fellow: Matteo Fael & Supervisor: Gian Giudice

EU funding: € 226 629,12

EU funding for CERN: € 226 629,12

Date: 01/10/2022 - 30/09/2024

RAD TORCH: Rare decays of heavy mesons to resonant channels

Reliable and precise Standard Model predictions are becoming increasingly important in searches for new physics as the gap closes between experiment and theory. At CERN I will perform the first physical-quark-mass calculation of resonant form factors, including B→ K*. This will allow future analyses of the LHCb data set to give significantly stronger probes of flavour non-universality and pave the way to discover new physics from the current 2.5σ tension in the R(K*) ratio of branching fractions observed at LHCb. This project will use lattice QCD to access these form factors from first principles. By carefully choosing the lattice setup, this project has the ambition to solve some of the major challenges in the study of B→K* processes: the resonance in the final state, the scale difference between the heavy b and light quarks involved and as the need to correctly renormalize form factors extracted from lattice QCD. 

Coordinator: CERN

Scientist in Charge from CERN: Fellow: Felix Erben & Supervisor: Andreas JUTTNER

EU funding: € 210 789,12

EU funding for CERN: € 210 789,12

Date: 01/11/2023 - 31/10/2025

RelSpinHydro: Relativistic Spin Hydrodynamics: Theory and Applications

Relativistic heavy-ion collisions create an exotic phase of quantum chromodynamics called quark-gluon plasma, where quarks and gluons are not confined inside nucleons. This state of matter exhibits surprising fluid properties, including being the system with the highest vorticity ever observed. RelSpinHydro develops new theoretical tools to understand emerging phenomena in the quark-gluon plasma caused by the interplay between the macroscopic fluid rotation of the system and the quantum spin of its constituents. Ultimately, this project provides a new avenue to study the properties of strongly interacting matter.

Coordinator: CERN

Scientist in Charge from CERN: Fellow: Enrico Speranza / Supervisor: Urs Achim WIEDEMANN

EU funding: € 210 789,12

EU funding for CERN: € 210 789,12

Date: 01/10/2023 - 30/09/2025

SENSE: Search for new physics and technological advancements from neutrino experiments at the high intensity frontier. A cooperative Europe - United States - Brazil effort.

Researchers from across Europe and from several countries around the world are working together to shed light on the least understood of the currently known elementary particles. Neutrinos, which rarely interact and are billions of times smaller than a grain of sand, are weird little particles with a significant role in our universe. Unfortunately, they are extremely difficult to detect. With the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the SENSE project researchers will work in the field of neutrino physics at the high intensity frontier. They will study the neutrino oscillations which are consistent with the mixing of three neutrino flavours in three mass eigenstates and small mass differences. The research will investigate the anomalies detected and search for sterile neutrinos.

Coordinator: Universita di Pisa

Scientist in Charge from CERN: Filippo RESNATI

EU funding: € 754,400.00

EU funding for CERN: € 92 000.00

Date: 01/01/2023 - 31/12/2026

SNPF: Searching New Physics using Flavour

Ten years after the Higgs boson discovery at CERN, no direct sign of new physics has been observed. To make further progress in high-energy physics, it is then necessary to improve the precision of theoretical predictions of Standard Model (SM) observables. The project SNPF will make use of formal and numerical tools, in particular methods of numerical lattice QCD, to achieve this aim in the context of flavour physics. The first project focuses on studying isospin breaking corrections in kaon semi-leptonic decays, with the aim of extracting the decay amplitude with sub-percent precision and test the CKM matrix unitarity predicted by the Standard Model. The second project aims to provide a non-perturbative estimate of long-distance contributions to the mixing of neutral D mesons, critical for studying CP violation and new physics effects in this process, making use of advanced reconstruction techniques applied to finite-volume lattice spectral functions.

Coordinator: CERN

Scientist in Charge from CERN: Fellow: Matteo DiCarlo / Supervisor: Andreas JUTTNER

EU funding: € 210 789,12

EU funding for CERN: € 210 789,12

Date: 01/10/2023 - 30/09/2025

TopJAm: Two-loop scattering amplitudes for top-pair production in association with a jet at hadron colliders

Particle collider experiments give us a window into the fundamental laws of nature. The interpretation of the outcomes of these experiments rely on the comparison against predictions based on the Standard Model of particle physics. With the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the TopJAm project plans to compute the two-loop scattering amplitudes for the production of a top-quark pair in association with a jet at hadron colliders. The targeted amplitudes are the main barrier to improving the accuracy of the predictions for this process. This will allow us to make the most of the measurements at the Large Hadron Collider, and thus improve our understanding of the heaviest known elementary particle: the top quark.

Coordinator: CERN

Scientist in Charge from CERN: Fellow: Simone Zoia / Supervisor: Samuel Francois SOUTO GONCALVES DE ABREU

EU funding: € 210 789,12

EU funding for CERN: € 210 789,12

Date: 01/10/2023 - 30/09/2025