"This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5)."
A new era for particle physics is about to begin. The Tevatron and the LHC are soon going to start probing the scale where the mechanism of electroweak symmetry breaking has to show up. In the Standard Model this mechanism relies on the existence of a fundamental scalar, the Higgs, which should be discovered at these new accelerators. This project goes in the direction of exploring new and novel mechanisms that resolve certain difficulties in the minimal model. These mechanisms all involve a modification of the Higgs sector, either by adding new symmetries, like supersymmetry, or supposing that the Higgs is no longer a fundamental object but a composite of an underlying theory. These different models are studied from both the theoretical and phenomenological point of view and a particular emphasis will be put on the collider signals in order to be prepared when new data is available. Because of the new data that is expected, this project requires also collaboration of experimental and theoretical researchers, such as that already in place at the University of Notre Dame, and will therefore have a broader impact on the experimental LHC program. Being able and willing to communicate the amazing discoveries that we are about to make is an important part of any scientific work. The PI will collaborate with QuarkNet, an NSF-funded outreach program for high school teachers and students. This broader impact will make sure that the high school teachers and students involved understand the theory that is behind the work they do in QuarkNet.
