The SAGEX review on scattering amplitudes Chapter 12: Amplitudes and collider physics

Abstract

We explore how various topics in modern scattering amplitudes research find application in the description of collider physics processes. After a brief review of experimentally measured quantities and how they are related to amplitudes, we summarise recent developments in perturbative QFT, and how they have impacted our ability to do precision physics with colliders. Next, we explain how the study of (next-to) soft radiation is directly relevant to increasing theoretical precision for key processes at the LHC and related experiments. Finally, we describe the various techniques that are used to turn theoretical calculations into something more closely approaching the output of a particle accelerator.

Wave scattering event shapes at high energies

“…The analysis of section 4 suggests that we should redefine the external gravitational wave profile, along the plane-wave direction, in order to absorb the collinear divergence. Equivalently, we should dress our incoming state to effectively regulate the gravitational field contribution coming from collinear gravitons interacting at late times; this is similar to what is done for parton distributions in perturbative QCD [107,108], and we will borrow these ideas now to address the collinear divergence in gravitational observables.…”

The SAGEX review on scattering amplitudes*

“…2.12. Amplitudes and collider physics [12] In this chapter, we examine one of the main applications of scattering amplitudes, namely the calculation of predictions for collider experiments such as the ongoing LHC. We first review what colliders are and why they are useful, before describing some of the main quantities that are measured in these experiments e.g.…”