The world's most energetic particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), has begun operations. This opens a new era of discovery in particle physics. A major justification for the LHC is to determine why the weak interaction, which causes many forms of radioactivity and controls the brightness of the sun, is so much weaker than the electromagnetic interaction. Ulitmately, this is because the photon, which induces electromagnetic interactions, is massless while the W and Z particles which induce weak interactions are very massive. But that begs the question of why the W and Z particles are so heavy. The standard explanation postulates that this is accomplished through electroweak symmetry breaking using the Higgs mechanism, which brings with it the famous but elusive Higgs elementary particle. However, the Higgs particle has not yet been observed and the Higgs mechanism has not been experimentally established. Therefore, to guide the interpretation of experimental results, it is important to study the theoretical structure and phenomenological predictions of alternative approaches. An appealing alternative is dynamical electroweak symmetry breaking caused by technicolor interactions. This project will use advanced theoretical techniques and a massive application of computing resources to learn how technicolor theories work and whether they can explain the experimental results that will be produced by the LHC in the next few years.
Project funding will also provide research opportunities and mentoring to support the development of a graduate student into an independent researcher. This funding also provides a unique opportunity for the student to become a member of the research collaboration, and to have access to resources at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, including researchers, super-computing, and specialized optimized software. At UC Davis, the High Energy Frontier Theory Initiative has a series of public lectures, several of which been related to LHC discovery potential. When there are actual discoveries, additional lectures will make those accessible to the general public.
