Andreas Papaefstathiou
Assistant Professor of Physics
I study Nature at the most fundamental level, with the aim of understanding the basic
building blocks of matter and energy and their interactions. This involves the study
of the tiniest particles that we know of - quarks, leptons, gauge bosons and the Higgs
boson.
Collider Experiments
The best way to investigate Nature at the sub-microscopic level is through experiments that rapidly smash particles together at very high energies and record the outcomes. The biggest such experiment is the CERN Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, Switzerland, colliding protons together at 99.9999991 percent the speed of light. There are plans for an even bigger machine, currently known as the "Future Circular Collider", which will be 7-8 times more powerful than the Large Hadron Collider.
I specialize in the phenomenology of particle physics. I write simulation tools and perform calculations that are crucial for the success of modern particle physics experiments. In particular, they allow us not only to predict what will be seen at experiments, but also to design future experiments and interpret their results.
Education
2011 Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom.
2007 MPhys in Physics, University of Manchester, United Kingdom.
Previous Employment
2019-2021 Post-Doctoral Researcher, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom.
2016-2019 Post-Doctoral Researcher, University of Amsterdam & Nikhef, The Netherlands.
2014-2016 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow, European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN),
Switzerland.
2011-2014 Post-Doctoral Researcher, University of Zürich, Switzerland.
News
- [3/28/23] New pre-print: "HEJ 2.2: W boson pairs and Higgs boson plus jet production at high energies." [https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.15778].
- [12/9/22] New pre-print out with Jonathan Zuk, Csaba Balazs and Graham White on "The Effective Potential in Fermi Gauges Beyond the Standard Model" [https://arxiv.org/abs/2212.04046].
- [12/6/22] The new webpage for MonteCarloNet is online [https://www.montecarlonet.org]. MonteCarloNet is an umbrella community for all working in methods, codes, and applications of general-purpose MC event generators. Kennesaw State Universty is a participating institute.
- [10/19/22] New pre-print by the HEJ Collaboration "High Energy Resummed Predictions for the Production of a Higgs Boson with at least One Jet", [https://arxiv.org/abs/2210.10671].
- [7/22/22] I have been awarded an NSF grant, "Deciphering Electro-Weak Scale Physics at Particle Colliders", see the relevant NSF page for the abstract.
- [6/2/22] For a semi-popularized review of some of my recent work, check out our article with Graham White on the electro-weak phase transition at current and future colliders, written for the CERN Experimental Physics Newsletter: https://ep-news.web.cern.ch/content/deciphering-electro-weak-phase-transition-current-and-future-colliders.
- [6/2/22] Talk at the Higgs Pairs Workshop (Croatia) on Triple Higgs boson production with extended scalar sectors.
- [5/28/22] A contribution to the US "Snowmass" high-energy physics study that examines "Signal strength and W-boson mass measurements as a probe of the electro-weak phase transition at colliders" with Tania Robens and Graham White: https://arxiv.org/abs/2205.14379.
Publications
You can find an up-to-date list of my publications in the INSPIRE database.
See the Computer Code page for my publicly-available open-source particle physics programs and tutorials.
Research
Check out my Research page for an up-to-date view of my research activities and themes!
Particle Theory at KSU
For more info on the Particle Theory Group at KSU, the largest in the State of Georgia, click here!
Undergraduate Research Opportunities
There are opportunities for undergraduate research projects. I can suggest several projects according to interest, based on my research themes outlined in my research page. Interested students should contact me via e-mail at first instance.
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