Poncelet

Rene Poncelet

I am a Research Associate and Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge.

Our understanding of the universe’s fundamental building blocks is largely dominated by measurements made in earth-based scattering experiments at high energies, like the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). It is the minute comparison between measured scattering cross-sections and first-principle theory predictions that allows us to distinguish and constrain different models of microscopic physics. This strategy guides our knowledge about elementary particles and their dynamics. With the next two decades of the LHC and the potential Future Circular Collider in mind, collider experiments will, also in the future, be at the heart of mankind’s efforts to unveil the secrets of nature.

The amount of data to be collected in the next planned stages of the LHC will drastically decrease statistical errors, leaving systematic uncertainties as the limiting factor of this research programme. These are driven by approximations made in the theoretical modelling of measurements. Predictions from Quantum Field Theory, the theory behind the Standard Model of Particle Physics (SM), can be systematically improved by the inclusion of higher orders in perturbative expansions. The only way to reach the declared goal of 1% theory uncertainty and to exploit the potential of precision measurements at future scattering experiments are next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) Monte Carlo simulations. In particular radiative corrections in Quantum Chromo Dynamics (QCD) are essential for LHC physics.

The objective of my research is to overcome the current boundaries of precision phenomenology. Recently, I’ve been awarded a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship for my project “The ‘NNLO Revolution’: pushing the boundary of perturbative QCD”, which allows me to further push along my research to this end. Currently, I’m working on fixed-order NNLO QCD calculations of cross sections for the LHC experiments. Among them are state-of-the-art precision predictions for many standard candles of the Standard Model like production of three jets, jet production in association with electro-weak bosons and top-quark pair production. Beyond phenomenological studies of higher-order QCD effects, the computation of two-loop amplitudes and the development of techniques and tools for NNLO QCD predictions have been of great interest to me.

 

A list of publications can be found on Inspire.

Contact details:

email: poncelet@hep.phy.cam.ac.uk
Office: (Cavendish Lab): Rutherford 935
Office: (+44) 1223 764127
Mailing Address: Cavendish Laboratory (HEP), JJ Thomson Avenue, Cambridge CB3 0HE, United Kingdom