"Version: 202112"--Title page verso.

Includes bibliographical references.

part I. Theory and methods for hadron colliders. 1. Introduction -- 1.1. Types of collider -- 1.2. Relativistic kinematics -- 1.3. Events, cross-sections and luminosity -- 1.4. Differential cross-sections -- 1.5. Particle detectors

2. Quantum field theory for hadron colliders -- 2.1. QED as a gauge theory -- 2.2. Quarks and colour -- 2.3. Lie groups -- 2.4. QCD as a gauge theory -- 2.5. Spontaneous symmetry breaking and the Higgs mechanism -- 2.6. The Standard Model of particle physics -- 2.7. Cross-sections and scattering amplitudes -- 2.8. Feynman diagrams and rules -- 2.9. Squared amplitudes -- 2.10. Phase-space integrals and the cross-section -- 2.11. Renormalisation in QED -- 2.12. Dimensional regularisation -- 2.13. Running couplings and masses -- 2.14. Renormalisation in QCD -- 2.15. Parton distributions -- 2.16. The DGLAP equations -- 2.17. Global fits of parton distributions

3. From theory to experiment -- 3.1. Fixed-order perturbation theory -- 3.2. Resummation -- 3.3. Parton showers -- 3.4. Hadronisation -- 3.5. The underlying event -- 3.6. Jet algorithms -- 3.7. Matching parton showers with matrix elements -- 3.8. Matching NLO matrix elements

4. Beyond the Standard Model -- 4.1. Theoretical challenges to the Standard Model -- 4.2. Experimental challenges to the Standard Model -- 4.3. Searching for beyond the SM physics -- 4.4. Possible new-physics theories

5. Statistics for collider physics -- 5.1. What is probability? -- 5.2. Correlations -- 5.3. Statistical estimators -- 5.4. Parameter inference -- 5.5. Bayesian inference -- 5.6. Frequentist inference -- 5.7. Sampling -- 5.8. Hypothesis testing -- 5.9. Multivariate methods and machine learning

part II. Experimental physics at hadron colliders. 6. Detecting and reconstructing particles at hadron colliders -- 6.1. Basic approach to particle detection and particle identification -- 6.2. Detector technologies in ATLAS and CMS -- 6.3. Triggers -- 6.4. Particle reconstruction -- 6.5. Rogue signals

7. Computing and data processing -- 7.1. Computing logistics -- 7.2. Event generation -- 7.3. Detector simulation and digitization -- 7.4. Reconstruction -- 7.5. Analysis-data processing, visualisation, and onwards

8. Data analysis basics -- 8.1. Data-taking -- 8.2. Object definition and selection -- 8.3. Event selection -- 8.4. Observables -- 8.5. Performance optimisation -- 8.6. Estimating backgrounds and uncertainties

9. Resonance searches -- 9.1. Types of resonance -- 9.2. Anatomy of a diphoton resonance search -- 9.3. Jet resonance searches

10. Semi-invisible particle searches -- 10.1. General approach for semi-invisible particle searches -- 10.2. Developing accurate background models -- 10.3. Comparing the observed LHC data with background models -- 10.4. Long-lived particle searches

11. High-precision measurements -- 11.1. Fiducial definitions, volumes and cross-sections -- 11.2. Complex object reconstruction -- 11.3. Detector corrections and unfolding

12. Analysis preservation and reinterpretation -- 12.1. Why reinterpretation is difficult -- 12.2. Fundamentals of reinterpretation: global statistical fits -- 12.3. Reinterpreting particle searches -- 12.4. Reinterpreting fiducial measurements -- 12.5. Analysis preservation and open data

13. Outlook -- 13.1. The future of the LHC -- 13.2. Beyond the LHC -- part III. Appendix. Appendix A. Useful relativistic formulae.

Practical Collider Physics provides a self-contained summary of all of the necessary theoretical, experimental and statistical knowledge required to analyse hadron collider data, focussing on the skills and techniques that are rarely covered in standard textbooks. It covers topics including parton distribution functions, resummation, parton showers, hadronisation, and the underlying event and jet algorithms, all of which are vital for understanding the form and function of Monte Carlo generators.

Final year undergraduate students and/or starting PhD students in particle physics.

Also available in print.

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader, EPUB reader, or Kindle reader.

Andy Buckley is a Senior Lecturer in particle physics at the University of Glasgow, Scotland. He began his career in collider physics as a PhD student at the University of Cambridge, developing Cerenkov-ring reconstruction and CP-violation data-analyses for the LHCb experiment. Christopher White is a Reader in Theoretical Physics at Queen Mary University of London. He obtained his PhD at the University of Cambridge, specialising on high-energy corrections to the structure of the proton. He then moved to Nikhef, Amsterdam (the Dutch National Centre for Nuclear and High Energy Physics), where he broadened his research into hadron collider physics, including Monte Carlo simulation, the description of low momentum ('soft') radiation in QCD, and various aspects of top-quark and Higgs physics. Martin White is a Professor in particle astrophysics, and Deputy Dean of Research in the Faculty of Sciences at the University of Adelaide, Australia. He obtained a PhD in high energy physics at the University of Cambridge, working as a member of the ATLAS experiment with interests in silicon-detector physics, supersymmetry searches, and supersymmetry phenomenology.

Title from PDF title page (viewed on January 18, 2022).