Programme Synopsis
Quantum field theory (QFT) provides a universal language for describing many facets of nature, [and] in particular the Standard Model of particle physics. A key part of this theory is Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), the SU (3) gauge theory of the strong interactions between quarks and gluons. It describes a plethora of interesting emergent phenomena, and remains the most actively studied QFT. Computations in QCD are difficult: while its coupling constant is small at very high energies, allowing for the perturbative description of hard parton collisions, the theory becomes non-perturbative at low energies, where important phenomena occur, such as the confinement of quarks and gluons into observable hadronic bound states like the proton. One important aspect for studying the frontiers of QFT is to explore the dynamics and rich phenomenology of collisions at a proton-proton collider, like the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which simultaneously probe over two orders of magnitude in length scales. The interplay of these different length scales is responsible for many important features, such as the formation and the properties of jets, the dependence of observable quantities on the fundamental parameters of the Standard Model, and considerably complicates the task of producing precise theoretical predictions.