Particle Physics

Particle physics is the science which identifies nature's constituents and interactions at the most fundamental level, with an emphasis on comparing theoretical ideas with both terrestrial experiments and astrophysical observations. This mandate gives it a strong overlap with string theory, quantum gravity and cosmology. Particle physicists at Perimeter Institute are currently involved in identifying how cosmological observations and terrestrial accelerator and underground experiments constrain the theoretical possibilities for physics beyond the Standard Model.

Displaying 733 - 744 of 1457

Improving Mass Measurements Using Many-Body Phase Space

Can Kilic The University of Texas at Austin
July 15, 2014

PIRSA:14070023
Particle Physics
What Can We Learn from Precision Higgs

Maxim Perelstein Cornell University
June 13, 2014

PIRSA:14060003
Particle Physics
Are the recent IceCube events hinting at O(100) TeV decaying dark matter?

Atri Bhattacharya University of Liège
May 22, 2014

PIRSA:14050118
Particle Physics
New strong interactions and the t t-bar asymmetry

Joachim Brod University of Cincinnati
May 13, 2014

PIRSA:14050092
Particle Physics
Noncommutative geometry and the symmetries of the standard model

Fedele Lizzi University of Naples Federico II
May 06, 2014

PIRSA:14050031
Particle Physics

Cosmology
Boson Tagging with Wavelets

William Shepherd University of California, Santa Cruz
April 15, 2014

PIRSA:14040063
Particle Physics
GeV Gamma-Rays from the Central Milky Way and the Case for Annihilating Dark Matter

Tracy Slatyer Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Department of Physics
March 26, 2014

PIRSA:14030120
Particle Physics
Naturalness and the Weak Gravity Conjecture

Clifford Cheung California Institute of Technology (Caltech) - Physics Office
March 25, 2014

PIRSA:14030119
Particle Physics
Exact results in supersymmetric gauge theories in various dimensions

Sara Pasquetti University of Milan
March 19, 2014

PIRSA:14030084
Particle Physics
Before the Bang

Raman Sundrum University of Maryland, College Park
March 18, 2014

PIRSA:14030113
Particle Physics
Large Tensor-to-Scalar Ratio in Small-Field Inflation

Takeshi Kobayashi SISSA International School for Advanced Studies
February 25, 2014

PIRSA:14020152
Particle Physics

Cosmology
Sequestering the Standard Model Vacuum Energy

Nemanja Kaloper University of California, Davis
February 21, 2014

PIRSA:14020109
Particle Physics

Improving Mass Measurements Using Many-Body Phase Space

Can Kilic The University of Texas at Austin
July 15, 2014

PIRSA:14070023
Particle Physics
After the 7 and 8 TeV LHC runs, we have no conclusive evidence of physics beyond the Standard Model, leading us to suspect that even if new physics is discovered during run II, the number of signal events may be limited, making it crucial to optimize measurements for the case of low statistics. I will argue that phase space correlations between subsequent on-shell decays in a cascade contain additional information compared to commonly used kinematic variables, and this can be used to significantly improve the precision and accuracy of mass measurements. The improvement is connected to the properties of the volume element of many-body phase space, and is particularly relevant to the case of low signal statistics.
What Can We Learn from Precision Higgs

Maxim Perelstein Cornell University
June 13, 2014

PIRSA:14060003
Particle Physics
In the coming years, LHC experiments will measure Higgs properties, such as its couplings, with increasing precision. Electron-positron Higgs factories, such as the ILC or TLEP, would be able to achieve even better precision. In this talk, I will discuss some of the physics questions that can be addressed by a precision Higgs coupling measurement program. First, the issue of naturalness of the electroweak scale can be addressed in a robust, model-independent manner. Second, the possibility of a first-order electroweak phase transition can be definitively probed, testing one of the necessary conditions of electroweak baryogenesis scenario.
Are the recent IceCube events hinting at O(100) TeV decaying dark matter?

Atri Bhattacharya University of Liège
May 22, 2014

PIRSA:14050118
Particle Physics
The IceCube detector has recently reported the observation of 28 events at previously unexplored energies. While the statistics of the observed events are still low, these events hint at the existence of a neutrino flux over and above the atmospheric neutrino background. We investigate the possibility that a significant component of the additional neutrino flux originates due to the decay of a very heavy dark matter (VHDM) particle via several possible channels into standard model particles. We show that a combination of a power law astrophysical neutrino spectrum and the neutrino flux from the decay of a DM species of mass in the range 150-400 TeV improves the fit to the observed neutrino events than that obtained from a best-fit astrophysical flux alone. Assuming the existence of an astrophysical background described by the IC best-fit, we also show that, for the decay of even heavier DM particles ($m_{\text{DM}} \sim 1$ PeV), the same observations impose significant constraints on the decay lifetimes. Allowing the astrophysical flux normalization to vary leads to modifications of these limits; however, there is still a range of dark matter mass and lifetime that is excluded by the IC results.
New strong interactions and the t t-bar asymmetry

Joachim Brod University of Cincinnati
May 13, 2014

PIRSA:14050092
Particle Physics
The CDF and D0 experiments at Tevatron measure a top-quark forward-backward
asymmetry significantly larger than the standard-model prediction.
We construct a model that involves new strong interactions at the electroweak scale
and can explain the measured asymmetry. Our model possesses a flavor symmetry
which allows to evade flavor and collider constraints, while it still permits flavor-violating
couplings of order 1 which are needed to generate the asymmetry via light t-channel vectors.
Noncommutative geometry and the symmetries of the standard model

Fedele Lizzi University of Naples Federico II
May 06, 2014

PIRSA:14050031
Particle Physics

Cosmology
I will describe Connes approach to the standard model based on spectral noncommutative geometry with particular emphasis on the symmetries. The model poses constraints which are satisfied by the standard model group, and does not leave much room for other possibilities. There is however a possibility for a larger symmetry (the ``grand algebra'') which may also be instrumental to obtain the correct mass of the Higgs.
Boson Tagging with Wavelets

William Shepherd University of California, Santa Cruz
April 15, 2014

PIRSA:14040063
Particle Physics
I'll present a proof-of-concept new technique for tagging boosted objects which decay into two colored particles based on the wavelet transform. It is able to moderately improve the sensitivity of searches for such particles by 6-7%. I will also discuss future directions of applicability.
GeV Gamma-Rays from the Central Milky Way and the Case for Annihilating Dark Matter

Tracy Slatyer Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Department of Physics
March 26, 2014

PIRSA:14030120
Particle Physics
Past studies have identified a spatially extended excess of ~1-3 GeV gamma rays from the Galactic Center and inner Galaxy, consistent with the emission expected from annihilating thermal relic dark matter. I will describe recent improvements in the characterization of this signal, which demonstrate that it is spherically symmetric, centered on the Galactic Center, and with a spatial profile consistent with annihilation from a cusped NFW profile. The excess can be detected out to 10 degrees from the Galactic Center, which poses challenges for a millisecond pulsar origin; I will discuss the implications of a dark matter interpretation.
Naturalness and the Weak Gravity Conjecture

Clifford Cheung California Institute of Technology (Caltech) - Physics Office
March 25, 2014

PIRSA:14030119
Particle Physics
The weak gravity conjecture (WGC) asserts a powerful consistency condition on gauge theories coupled to quantum gravity: an Abelian, long-range force requires a state of charge q and mass m such that q > m/mPl. Failure of this condition implies the existence of stable black hole remnants and is in tension with no-hair theorems. In this paper, we argue that the WGC creates a non- perturbative obstruction to naturalness, which is the notion that dimensionless coefficients should take on O(1) values in the absence of enhanced symmetry. As an illustration, we show that for scalar quantum electrodynamics, a natural spectrum can actually be forbidden by the WGC, which bounds a radiatively unstable quantity, m, by a radiatively stable quantity, q. More generally, the WGC can be at odds with naturalness in any theory containing charged fundamental scalars. We extend the conditions of the WGC to more complicated theories with multiple gauge symmetries and particles. Finally, we discuss implications for the hierarchy problem and construct a simple model in which the natural value of the electroweak scale—at the cutoff—is forbidden by the WGC.
Exact results in supersymmetric gauge theories in various dimensions

Sara Pasquetti University of Milan
March 19, 2014

PIRSA:14030084
Particle Physics
One of the central challenges in theoretical physics is to develop non-perturbative methods to describe quantitatively the dynamics of strongly coupled quantum fields. Much progress in this direction has been made for theories with a higher degree of symmetry, such as conformal symmetry or supersymmetry. In recent years the method of localisation has allowed to obtain a great deal of exact results for supersymmetric gauge theories in various dimensions which has led to the discovery of new surprising correspondences such as the celebrated Alday-Gaiotto-Tachikawa correspondence. I will review some recent results which indicate that partition functions of supersymmetric theories formulated on compact manifolds can be expressed in terms of a small set of fundamental building blocks.
Before the Bang

Raman Sundrum University of Maryland, College Park
March 18, 2014

PIRSA:14030113
Particle Physics
The simplest black hole solution in asymptotic AdS spacetime, the eternal 3-dimensional BTZ black hole, is studied from the viewpoint of AdS/CFT duality. We identify a class of non-local correlators on the CFT side that allow us to generalize the notion of quantum gravity "S-matrix" to scattering inside the horizon. Since the interior of the horizon is a cosmological spacetime with a big bang/crunch-like singularity, our construction can be interpreted as identifying generally coordinate invariant observables of quantum gravity in a simple cosmology. We show in a certain precise sense, that these holographic observables lie "before the big bang" in a region of spacetime containing closed timelike curves. A central tool in our analysis is the realization of BTZ as a quotient of 3-dimensional AdS.
Large Tensor-to-Scalar Ratio in Small-Field Inflation

Takeshi Kobayashi SISSA International School for Advanced Studies
February 25, 2014

PIRSA:14020152
Particle Physics

Cosmology
The production of gravitational waves from cosmic inflation > is normally bounded by the inflaton field excursion. This relation, > which is often referred to as the Lyth bound, claims that > observationally large gravitational waves are produced only if the > inflaton has a super-Planckian field range. In this talk I will point > out that this general belief is not necessarily true when there are > additional light fields producing density perturbations. Perturbations > seeded by the inflaton can be suppressed under such situations, thus > allow large gravitational waves to be produced even from small-field (i.e. > sub-Planckian) inflation. I will also show that the field bound is > taken over by the light field when the inflaton-induced perturbations > are suppressed, thus present a generalized form of the Lyth bound that > applies to the total field space. The calculations are rather simple, > so I will explain my work on a blackboard.
Sequestering the Standard Model Vacuum Energy

Nemanja Kaloper University of California, Davis
February 21, 2014

PIRSA:14020109
Particle Physics
We propose a very simple reformulation of General Relativity, which completely sequesters from gravity {\it all} of the vacuum energy from a matter sector, including all loop corrections and renders all contributions from phase transitions automatically small. The idea is to make the dimensional parameters in the matter sector functionals of the 4-volume element of the universe. For them to be nonzero, the universe should be finite in spacetime. If this matter is the Standard Model of particle physics, our mechanism prevents any of its vacuum energy, classical or quantum, from sourcing the curvature of the universe. The mechanism is consistent with the large hierarchy between the Planck scale, electroweak scale and curvature scale, and early universe cosmology, including inflation. Consequences of our proposal are that the vacuum curvature of an old and large universe is not zero, but very small, that wDE≃−1 is a transient, and that the universe will collapse in the future.

Title	Speaker(s)	Date	Talk Type	Info link
Improving Mass Measurements Using Many-Body Phase Space	Can Kilic	2014-07-15	Scientific Series	View details
What Can We Learn from Precision Higgs	Maxim Perelstein	2014-06-13	Scientific Series	View details
Are the recent IceCube events hinting at O(100) TeV decaying dark matter?	Atri Bhattacharya	2014-05-22	Scientific Series	View details
New strong interactions and the t t-bar asymmetry	Joachim Brod	2014-05-13	Scientific Series	View details
Noncommutative geometry and the symmetries of the standard model	Fedele Lizzi	2014-05-06	Scientific Series	View details
Boson Tagging with Wavelets	William Shepherd	2014-04-15	Scientific Series	View details
GeV Gamma-Rays from the Central Milky Way and the Case for Annihilating Dark Matter	Tracy Slatyer	2014-03-26	Scientific Series	View details
Naturalness and the Weak Gravity Conjecture	Clifford Cheung	2014-03-25	Scientific Series	View details
Exact results in supersymmetric gauge theories in various dimensions	Sara Pasquetti	2014-03-19	Scientific Series	View details
Before the Bang	Raman Sundrum	2014-03-18	Scientific Series	View details
Large Tensor-to-Scalar Ratio in Small-Field Inflation	Takeshi Kobayashi	2014-02-25	Scientific Series	View details
Sequestering the Standard Model Vacuum Energy	Nemanja Kaloper	2014-02-21	Scientific Series	View details

Particle Physics

Format results