Electroweak Symmetry Breaking and Physics Beyond the Standard Model

该奖项资助密歇根州立大学R·塞哈尔·奇武库拉教授和伊丽莎白·H·西蒙斯教授的研究活动。该奖项资助的研究重点是揭示基本亚原子粒子质量的起源。接下来的三年将与欧洲核子研究中心的大型强子对撞机(LHC)13TeV高能运行不谋而合，这将揭示新发现的126GeV“希格斯”玻色子的性质，对顶夸克(已知最重的基本粒子)进行详细研究，并调查物质的性质，精确到有史以来最小的距离尺度。在他们的研究中，奇武库拉教授和西蒙斯教授将进行理论研究，以模拟物质在这些短距离尺度上的行为，并预测可能在大型强子对撞机上观察到的新现象。这项研究符合国家利益，因为它将促进科学进步，帮助阐明支配我们宇宙的基本定律，并加深我们对亚原子领域的了解。拟议中的项目还产生了几个更广泛的影响。奇武库拉教授和西蒙斯教授是校园和全国努力提高学生在STEM(科学、技术、工程和数学)方面的学习和毅力的领导者，特别是第一代学生和来自代表性不足人群的学生。PIS还将让研究生和博士后参与他们的研究，为初级物理学家提供研究方法方面的培训，并为他们成为独立科学家做好专业准备。最后，PI将继续在面向科学中代表性不足的群体的学生的外联活动中展示他们的研究结果，以吸引下一代科学家。更严格地说，Chivukula教授和Simmons教授将研究标准模型以外的理论中的希格斯、顶夸克和QCD部门之间的关系如何影响电弱对称破缺和粒子质量的起源。PI将构建和研究希格斯粒子是复合的模型，包括顶部在弱电对称破缺中发挥特殊作用的模型，也可以是复合模型。他们将从味道物理和精确的电弱数据中推导出对这些理论的约束，强调新标量和其他可能出现在大型强子对撞机和未来对撞机上的模型的现象学后果。奇武库拉教授和西蒙斯教授还将研究以新的有色矢量、标量或费米子态为特征的扩展颜色部分的模型。高能大型强子对撞机将极大地扩展我们对新有色态的实验范围，而PI将系统地研究如何在发现后确定这种态的性质。

This award funds the research activities of Professors R. Sekhar Chivukula and Elizabeth H. Simmons at Michigan State University.The research funded under this grant focuses on uncovering the origins of the masses of the elementary subatomic particles. The next three years will coincide with the 13-TeV high-energy run of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, which will reveal the properties of the newly discovered 126-GeV "Higgs" boson, perform detailed studies of the top quark (the heaviest elementary particle known), and investigate the nature of matter down to the smallest distance scales ever probed. In their research, Professors Chivukula and Simmons will perform theoretical investigations to model the behavior of matter at these short distance scales and predict new phenomena that could be observed at the LHC. This research is in the national interest because it will promote the progress of science in helping to elucidate the fundamental laws governing our universe and deepen our knowledge of the subatomic realm. The proposed project also has several broader impacts. Professors Chivukula and Simmons are leaders in campus and national efforts to improve students' learning and persistence in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), especially first-generation students and those from under-represented populations. The PIs will also involve graduate students and postdocs in their research, providing training to junior physicists in research methods and professional preparation to become independent scientists. Finally, the PIs will continue presenting the results of their research in outreach events focused on students from groups underrepresented in science, in order to engage the next generation of scientists.More technically, Professors Chivukula and Simmons will investigate how electroweak symmetry breaking and the origins of particle masses are impacted by relationships between the Higgs, top quark, and QCD sectors of theories beyond the Standard Model. The PIs will construct and study models in which the Higgs is composite, including those where the top plays a special role in electroweak symmetry breaking and may also be composite. They will derive constraints on these theories from flavor physics and precision electroweak data, emphasizing the phenomenological consequences of the models for the new scalar and other states that may appear at the LHC and future colliders. Professors Chivukula and Simmons will also study models of an extended color sector featuring new colored vector, scalar, or fermion states. The high-energy LHC will dramatically extend our experimental reach for new colored states, and the PIs will systematically investigate how to determine the properties of such a state upon discovery.