The Standard Model (SM) of elementary particle physics is extremely successful in explaining and predicting experimental data, spanning in energy from the atomic scale to the Z boson mass scale, and sensitive to the fundamental interactions of strong, weak and electromagnetic forces. It has been tested by a large number of experiments at CERN LEP, SLAC SLC and the Fermilab Tevatron colliders at the level of a few tenths of percent. The long awaited discovery of the top quark at the Tevatron in 1995 gave another strong confirmation of the SM. However, the mechanism of the Electroweak Symmetry Breaking (EWSB) which generates masses for the W and Z bosons as well as the fermions, and leaves the electromagnetic gauge symmetry intact is via the Higgs boson which has not yet been found. In addition, the SM cannot explain the hierarchical pattern of fermion masses. It is therefore widely believed that at high energies, or in very high precision measurements, deviation from the SM will appear in experimental data to signal the presence of new physics. This award supports the development or various theoretical calculations and computational tools to enable probing the EWSB mechanism in high energy collisions at the Fermilab Tevatron and CERN Large Hadron Collider.
While Einstein described the connection between mass and energy over 100 years ago, as of today, it is still not known to anyone, including physicists, where the mass (M ) of matter comes from. This program of research has as its goal addressing the questions related to the origin of the mass of matter. The achievement of these projects will contribute to our understanding of the fundamental interactions in Nature. The scientific results and the developed numerical programs will be made available via the World Wide Web.
