Mötesplats Rydberg: Stabilizing theories with a Higgs boson

Tuesday 14 Oct 2014, 15:30 → 16:30 Europe/Stockholm

Rydbergsalen (Fysiska institutionen-Physics Department)

James Wells, Professor in Physics at University of Michigan Abstract: Only a few years ago the Higgs boson was a speculative particle with an uncertain future. Its recent discovery heralds a new era in particle physics. We now must take seriously the existence of potentially fundamental scalar bosons in nature and address the many issues that surround it. Is such a boson "natural"? Are there additional dynamics that can render it "natural" and not destabilize the rest of the theory? Is it truly a fundamental scalar? How can we tell if it is not, and what must we do to find out? Related to the discussion of these questions, the discovery also lends renewed support to recently identified varieties of supersymmetric theories with very specific and testable characteristics.