THORNE1	Parton Distribution Functions and the LHC
Type	Computational/data analysis
#students	1 or 2 together
Orientation	Why is the scientific problem of interest at all? The proton is made up out of a collection of quarks, antiquarks and gluons, collectively known as partons. The detailed description of this is in terms of parton distributions. When collisions occur at a high-energy particle collider (e.g. the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)) the interactions are effectively between the colliding partons. Hence, the results at particle colliders depend on the details of the parton distributions and in turn can be used to improve our knowledge of them, and implicitly of the strong force, Quantum ChromoDynamics (QCD).
How	How is the research going to shed light on the given problem?. The project will examine how QCD and experimental data from particle colliders affects the parton distribution functions and influences predictions at the LHC
What	What is the specific thing that the student will do, and how does it fit inside the overall project?
Special Knowledge
Supervisor	Prof. Robert Thorne thorne@hep.ucl.ac.uk