My name is Maryam Shooshtari, and I am a former doctoral researcher at Marietta Blau Institute for Particle Physics (MBI) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW), where I conducted my PhD research in particle physics. While I am in the final stage of completing my doctorate, I decided to take part in the Dance Your PhD competition — an international science communication contest that challenges researchers to explain their doctoral work through dance and creative performance.

My research focuses on the Effective Field Theory interpretation of four-top quark production in the CMS detector at CERN. This work studies rare processes involving top quarks and uses precise measurements to search for possible signs of physics Beyond the Standard Model. While the research relies on advanced theoretical frameworks and complex data analysis, the central questions are fundamental:
How can we parameterize possible effects of new physics without altering the fundamental structure of the Standard Model and without introducing new particles or symmetries? Effective field theory provides a systematic way to describe potential deviations from the Standard Model and to quantify how strongly observed data may differ from its predictions.

The aim of the video is to communicate these ideas in a way that is accessible, engaging, and understandable beyond the scientific community. Through movement and visual storytelling, the project translates abstract theoretical concepts into a creative format designed to make high-energy physics approachable to a broad audience.

Here is the link to the video: https://youtu.be/SNElUGnm94s