[Triumf-seminars] TRIUMF Special Seminar today at 11:00

[postmaster at admin.triumf.ca]

Date/Time: Wed 2008-02-06 at 11:00

Location:  Auditorium          

Speaker:   Radovan Dermisek (Institute for Advanced Study)

Title:     Supersymmetric Grand Unification, LEP puzzle and the Higgs boson at the LHC

Abstract: The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will start colliding protons at unprecedented energy this year. The purpose is to learn about physics behind electroweak symmetry breaking and discover the last missing piece of the Standard Model of elementary particle physics, the Higgs boson. The Standard Model is a very successful theory that describes three of the four known fundamental interactions between the elementary particles and has many predictions that were experimentally confirmed at the Large Electron-Positron Collider (LEP). Inspired by criteria of simplicity and beauty the most popular theories of physics beyond the standard model are based on the idea of supersymmetric grand unification. These theories unify all three interactions of the standard model and also provide a solution to the hierarchy problem. The measured values of the three gauge couplings at LEP highly support this idea. Among other virtues supersymmetry also predicts the mass of the Higgs boson and without any "unnatural assumptions" the Higgs boson is predicted to be so light that it should have been observed already at LEP. A light Higgs boson is also suggested by precision electroweak data. Negative and somewhat confusing result of the search for the Higgs boson at LEP left us with a puzzle and it is casting a shadow on the whole idea of supersymmetric grand unification. I will describe a simple way of reconciling the prediction of supersymmetry for the mass of the Higgs boson, precision EW data and the negative LEP result in models where the Higgs boson decays in a different way than it does in the standard model. This proposal dramatically changes the prospect for discovery of the Higgs boson at the LHC.

Stimulants available 15 minutes before the talk.  The speaker is a candidate for a research scientist position in the theory group.

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