Rene Poncelet

I am a staff scientist in the Department of Theoretical Particle Physics at the Instytut Fizyki Jądrowej Polskiej Akademii Nauk (IFJ PAN).

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 is 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 QCD phenomenology in high-energy collisions. I have been awarded various grants and awards, such as a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship, the Guido Altarelli Award, and an ERC Starting Grant, which allow me to further advance my research in this direction. Currently, I am working on second-order QCD corrections for LHC experiments. Among them are state-of-the-art precision predictions for many standard candles of the Standard Model, like production of jets, jet production in association with electro-weak bosons, Higgs 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, such as subtraction schemes and adaptive Monte Carlo integration, for NNLO QCD predictions have been of great interest to me. In the mid-term future, the focus will turn to combining these precision calculations with parton-shower event simulations.