HOME /

Research

My research focuses on particle physics and quantum field theory.

Some areas of reseach that I have been interested in are: 

If you are interested in learning more about my work, below you cn find some

QUANTUM FIELD THEORY

Much of my research is focused on understanding quantum field theory, from its foundations to its applications in particle physics. This is a very broad subject.

One specific aspect that has taken much of my attention over the past several years is the behavior of quantum field theories at long distances. In particular, I have been fasciated by the wauy field theories simplify at the longest distances. For example I have worked on

MACHINE LEARNING

Machine learning has been a part of particle physics for at least 40 years. Recently however, modern machine learning methods have fueled a revolution in the way collider physics is done.

 

Some machine learning projects I have worked on

VACUUM STABILITY

One topic I have been interested in non-perturbative effects in quantum field theory and  the stability of our universe.

  • The universe, as described by the Standard Model is unstabile to the formation of bubbles of negative energy density through quantum tunneling.
  • Wth my students Anders Andrassen, David Farhi and Will Frost, we figured out a way to caluclate this tunneling rate in quantum field theory, resolving a number of inconsistancies in previous treatments.
  • Here is the resulting phase diagram, with experimental errors include in the ellipses and theoretical errors in the phase boundaries:

 

  • The current lifetime is estimated to be Tuniverse = 10167 years.
  • Relevant papers

JET PHYSICS PROJECTS

Click on any of the following to see more information about some of my jet physics projects. 

Jet Cleansing      Jet Charge< Jet Mass at the LHC N-subjettiness signal
Jet Sampling Qjets

Quarks vs Gluons 

Pull

Jets in Anti-de Sitter space

W-tagging

Thrust

Heavy Jet mass
Direct Photondirect photon Jet Mass and Refactorizationjetmass Top-tagging 

 

PAPERS

The full list of papers I have written can be found here.

My citations on inspires and on google scholar.

Here is a summary of some of my papers:

  • A Finite S-Matrix by Hofie Hannesdottir and Matthew D Schwartz, June 2019
    • We try to present a concise definition of an S-matrix valid in theories with massless particles. By exploiting factorization and simpliciations induced by dimensional regularization, this reformulation of the old idea of using dressed or coherent states becomes relatively simple.
  • JUNIPR: a Framework for Unsupervised Machine Learning in Particle Physics by Anders Andreassen, Ilya Feige, Chris Fryee and Matthew D. Schwartz. Eur.Phys.J. C79 (2019) no.2, 102 
    • An approach to unsupervised machine learning in particule physics is introduced which is both interpretable and powerful.
  • Consistent Use of the Standard Model Effective Potential by Anders Andreassen, William Frost and Matthew D. Schwartz. Phys. Rev. Lett., 113 (2014) no.24, 241801
    • In this paper and this one, we show that the usual way by which vacuum stability is calculated in gauge-dependent. We then present the first scheme which is gauge-invariant order-by-order in pertubation theory, and discuss its implications for the Standard Model.
  • Hard-Soft-Collinear Factorization to All Orders by Ilya Feige and Matthew D. Schwartz
    • This paper gives the first complete formulation and proof of a closed form, gauge-invariant and regulator-independent statement of soft-collinear factorization to all orders in pertubation theory. Special cases include the universality of splitting functions and of soft currents.Phys.Rev. D90 (2014) no.10, 105020
  • Jet Charge at the LHC. by David Krohn, Tongyin Lin, Matthew D. Schwartz and Wouter Waalewijn. Phys. Rev. Lett. 110 (2013) 212001 
    • We show that the charge of an underlying parton can be extracted from the distributon of charged hadrons in a jet at the LHC. This lets us distinguish up-quark jets from down-quark jets, for example, on a statistical basis.
  • Precision Jet Substructure from Boosted Event Shapes. by Ilya Feige, Matthew D. Schwartz, Iain W. Stewart and Jesse Thaler, Phys.Rev.Lett. 109 (2012) 092001 .
    • We perform the first analytic jet substructure calcualtion, of an observable called 2-subjettiness. We also introduce a novel way of controlling for power corrections from hadronization, pileup and the underlying event.
  • Qjets: A Non-Deterministic Approach to Tree-Based Jet Substructure by Stephen D. Ellis, Andrew Hornig, David Krohn,, Tuhin S. Roy and and Matthew D. Schwartz, Phys.Rev.Lett. 108 (2012) 1820031.
    • Instead of choosing a best-guess interpretation of a jet, as in a classical algorithm, we show that a weighted average over guesses can work substantially better. 
  • Resummation for W and Z production at large pT., by Thomas Becher, Christian Lorentzen and Matthew D. Schwartz, Phys.Rev.Lett. 108 (2012) 012001.
    • Describes our caculation of the spectrum of W or Z bosons at the LHC when produced in associatino with a single jet. We compute this cross section with the help of Soft-Collinear Effective Theory. This is currently the world's best calculation of this observable.
  • Quark and Gluon Tagging at the LHC. by Jason Gallicchio and Matthew D. Schwartz, Phys.Rev.Lett. 107 (2011) 172001.
    • A comprehensive study on how to distinguish quark jets from gluon jets on an event-by-event basis. These ideas are currently being explored by the ATLAS collaboration at the LHC.
  • Seeing in Color: Jet Superstructure. by Jason Gallicchio and Matthew D. Schwartz, Phys.Rev.Lett. 105 (2010) 022001.
    • Introduces a variable called pull which can be used to measure color flow. This variable has since been measured by the D0 collaboration at the Tevatron in top events, and is currently being studied by the ATLAS collaboration at the LHC.
  • Top Tagging: A Method for Identifying Boosted Hadronically Decaying Top Quarks. by David E. Kaplan, Keith Rehermann, Matthew D. Schwartz, Brock Tweedi, Phys.Rev.Lett. 101 (2008) 142001.
    • This was the first practical method to find top-jets at hadron colliders, and one of the pioneering papers on jet substructure. This method is now known as the Hopkins Top-tagger and is used by the CMS collaboratino at the LHC to search for top-antitop resonances.
  • Constraining Light Colored Particles with Event Shapes. by David E. Kaplan and Matthew D. Schwartz.Phys.Rev.Lett. 101 (2008) 022002.
    • Using precision event shape calculations (see also arXiv:0803) and data from LEP, this paper put a model-independent lower bound of 54 GeV on the mass of the gluino. This was nearly an order of magnitude better than the previous bound of 6.2 GeV.
  • Improving Jet Distributions with Effective Field Theory. by Christian W. Bauer and Matthew D. Schwartz Phys.Rev.Lett. 97 (2006) 142001.
    • This paper demonstrated that the parton shower picture used in Monte Carlo event generators, such as pythia, has a precise correspondance with the evolution of operators in Soft-Collinear effective Theory
  • Infrared Lorentz violation and Slowly Instantaneous Electricity by Gia Dvali, Michele Papucci and Matthew D. Schwartz Phys.Rev.Lett. 94 (2005) 191602.
    • This paper considered for the first time the physical consequences of a scenario in which the photon has a small Lorentz-violating mass. The bounds in this case were shown to be weaker than the Lorentz-invarariant case, because electromagnetic waves maintain their massless dispersion relation, so the strongest astrophysical constraints are avoided.
  • Unification and the Hierarchy from AdS5. by Lisa Randall and Matthew D. Schwartz, Phys.Rev.Lett. 88 (2002) 081801.
    • This paper showed that unification is consistent with warped extra dimensions. To show this, a method for calculated loops in mixed position-momentum space was developed.

 

TALKS

Here are some selected talks I have given