Electroweak Symmetry Breaking and Physics Beyond the Standard Model

该奖项资助密歇根州立大学 R. Sekhar Chivukula 教授和 Elizabeth H. Simmons 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。 未来三年将与 CERN 大型强子对撞机 (LHC) 的 13-TeV 高能运行同时进行，这将揭示新发现的 126-GeV“希格斯”玻色子的特性，对顶夸克（已知最重的基本粒子）进行详细研究，并研究物质的本质，直至迄今为止探测到的最小距离尺度。在他们的研究中，奇武库拉和西蒙斯教授将进行理论研究，以模拟这些短距离尺度上的物质行为，并预测大型强子对撞机可以观察到的新现象。这项研究符合国家利益，因为它将促进科学进步，帮助阐明宇宙的基本规律，加深我们对亚原子领域的了解。拟议的项目还具有一些更广泛的影响。 Chivukula 和 Simmons 教授是校园和国家努力提高学生（尤其是第一代学生和弱势群体学生）学习和坚持 STEM（科学、技术、工程和数学）的努力的领导者。 PI 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和成为独立科学家的专业准备方面的培训。最后，PI 将继续在以科学领域代表性不足的学生为重点的外展活动中展示他们的研究成果，以吸引下一代科学家。从技术上讲，Chivukula 和 Simmons 教授将研究标准模型之外的希格斯、顶夸克和 QCD 理论领域之间的关系如何影响电弱对称性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，包括那些顶部在电弱对称性破缺中发挥特殊作用并且也可能是复合的模型。他们将从味道物理学和精密电弱数据中得出对这些理论的约束，强调模型对新标量和可能出现在大型强子对撞机和未来对撞机上的其他状态的现象学后果。 Chivukula 和 Simmons 教授还将研究具有新颜色矢量、标量或费米子状态的扩展颜色扇区模型。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这种态时确定其性质。

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.