Title: Perturbative QCD -- A Pathway to Precision Physics and Discoveries at High Energy Colliders

Speaker: Dr. Prasanna Kumar Dhani, (Valencia U., IFIC)

Abstract: The groundbreaking discovery of the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider inaugurated the precision era in particle physics, in which high quality data for many observables with increasing accuracy are being produced. To match these precise measurements with the Standard Model, or any of its extensions, it is of primary importance to achieve theoretical predictions at the highest level of accuracy; deviations between experimental data and theoretical predictions will hint for new physics. In addition, precise predictions also help in uncovering and better understanding Nature at the quantum level. Quantum chromodynamics (QCD) successfully describes the strong interactions in the sub-nuclear regime between the fundamental constituents of matter known as quarks and gluons. Moreover, perturbative QCD plays a pivotal role in achieving the precision goal, thanks to the parton model where long distance physics is factorized from the short distance physics, required by the colliders through calculations at high powers in the strong coupling. In this talk, we will explore the exciting path that the particle physics phenomenology has laid before us, and also dive deep into the validity of parton model factorization that enables the perturbative computations at the hadron colliders.