PhD positions at the IPPP

Supervisors and projects for fully funded PhD positions in the IPPP beginning in October 2026 are listed below.   Information on how to apply for these positions can be found  here.

Postgraduate Research projects beginning in October 2026

Accurate predictions for LHC Processes at the highest partonic energies

Two recent papers by ATLAS analysing data collected at the highest collision energies at the LHC have highlighted the necessity of developing methods to systematically tackle the intricate behaviour of large logarithmic corrections in the perturbative series to all orders in the perturbative coupling in order for predictions to be accurate and useful in developing the
understanding of the underlying theory describing the
collisions. Specifically, the analysis of the processes of the production of at least two jets ($pp\to jj$ [https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.20206]) and the production of a hard photon or an electroweak vector boson in association with at least two jets ($pp\to {\gamma,Z,W}+jj$ [https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.02793]) all indicate systematic deviations from data with increasing partonic collision energy for e.g. fixed order perturbative predictions. Perturbative predictions taking into account the source of the large logarithmic corrections at high energies on the other hand obtain stable predictions of data [https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.02793,
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.17438].
 
Stable predictions at high energies are required in order to utilise data to study directly e.g. the coupling of the Higgs boson to the electroweak gauge bosons.
 
The project would improve the predictions further by deriving the full set of next-to-leading logarithmic corrections for the processes under study. Furthermore, the predictions are now sufficiently precise that effects from e.g. the requirements of isolated photons need to be incorporated at higher logarithmic accuracy. There project can be taken in several directions according to interests and skills.

 

Supervisor: Jeppe Andersen

Axion-like particles

This project focuses on one of the key low energy predictions of string theory – the existence of numerous light “axion-like particles” (ALPs) interacting very weakly with the Standard Model particles.  Searching for these ALPs is a unique challenge and could require different theoretical and experimental approaches than previous searches targeting just one or two new particles.
 
This project will develop new searches for the string axiverse, with the following strategies as a starting point:
 
  1. Extending existing codes and statistical techniques to simulate the effects of multiple ALPs on light propagating through astrophysical systems such as stars, galaxies and galaxy clusters. We will then use X-ray and gamma ray telescope data to search for string axiverse models. As well as new searches for ALPs, this would also lead to a publicly available python package.
  2. Developing new theoretical techniques to study black hole superradiance, an effect in which a bosonic field may exponentially grow around a rotating black hole. We will develop an approach to black hole superradiance that includes the effect of the accretion disk, using thermal field theory techniques to model the interaction of the superradiant boson with the disk. We will then apply this theoretical work to ALP searches.

Supervisor: Francesca Chadha-Day

Searching for New Physics Phenomena beyond and within the Standard Model

In the last decades, the Standard Model of particle physics evolved to the most precise theory of fundamental interactions and the elementary constituents of matter. Despite its great success, there remain open questions: the Standard Model cannot account for the dark matter content of the universe, it does not explain why the Higgs boson mass is so much smaller than the Planck mass or why QCD does not break CP-symmetry. It also does not explain the observed matter-antimatter asymmetry of the universe, which must have been present shortly after the Big Bang, and this remains one of the major outstanding questions in modern physics.

And even within the Standard Model itself, there exist fascinating quantum and non-perturbative phenomena that are predicted by Quantum Field Theory, but have never been observed in any particle physics experiments. These are related to semiclassical field configurations such as instantons which describe quantum tunnelling effects, monopoles, skyrmions and other soliton-like configurations.

This project will develop theoretical and phenomenological approaches to search for fundamental new physics phenomena in the Standard Model itself and in Beyond-the-Standard-Model formulations to address these exciting issues.

Supervisor: Valya Khoze