Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - NonMinimalHiggs (Non Minimal Higgs)

Teaser

\"This project focuses on new physics models with a non-minimal Higgs sector. On 4h July 2012 CERN announced the discovery of a scalar particle at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a Higgs boson. This long awaited discovery increased massively our understanding of Nature. To...

Summary

\"This project focuses on new physics models with a non-minimal Higgs sector. On 4h July 2012 CERN announced the discovery of a scalar particle at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a Higgs boson. This long awaited discovery increased massively our understanding of Nature.

To illustrate the phenomenal importance of this discovery, it suffices to mention that it resulted in the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics to Profs PW Higgs and F Englert ``for the theoretical discovery of a mechanism that contributes to our understanding of the origin of mass of subatomic particles, and which recently was confirmed through the discovery of the predicted fundamental particle, by the ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN\'s Large Hadron Collider“ (motivation of the Nobel Committee).

In connection with this, we should also like to report a few quotes.

Peter Knight, president of UK\'s IoP: \"\"This is the physics version of the discovery of DNA“.

Former British PM David Cameron: \"\"This is a great breakthrough, one that could be profoundly significant to our understanding of the universe and the fundamental laws that govern it“.

German Research Minister Annette Schavan: \"\"The endurance and curiosity of researchers has been rewarded\"\".

This is all very exciting. However, there are still fundamental questions awaiting an answer. Since the Standard Model (SM), the theoretical framework which predicted the experimental discovery of the Higgs boson, appears flawed, which new physics scenario better describes Nature when all observed properties of this new particle are taken into consideration? Will any of these new models help to solve other outstanding problems in particle physics? The overall objective of this project is to look for answers to these crucial questions.

The path that we are taking to do so is guided by the following considerations. The SM is incomplete, in fact, it cannot explain other physics phenomena observed in the Universe (why there is dark matter, why there are more particles than antiparticles, why neutrinos are massive, etc.). There is therefore a need to go Beyond the SM (BSM). However, the Higgs mechanism for the generation of mass must be a cornerstone of any BSM scenario. We are therefore exploring a variety of scenarios that embed the Higgs mechanism in a (non-minimal) form suitable for BSM physics and we are studying their manifestations in both laboratory and space facilities, as these will provide the unlocking key to what BSM physics is realised in Nature.\"

Work performed

We have so far had three RISE collaboration meetings, in Poland (2015), Sweden (2016) and Japan (2017). These have all seen the attendance of representatives from all nodes, either in person or via video-conferencing mode. Both ERs and ESRs participated in these events. While the first meeting was primarily about assessing the scientific status of the various nodes (in relation to the RISE project) and setting the basis of an effective collaboration, the second was essentially the ‘mid-term review meeting’ between the beneficiaries, the partner organisations and the ERA. The third one was instead a proper scientific meeting where results which emerged from the RISE collaboration were presented.

These have been produced by all members of the collaboration on theoretical, phenomenological and experimental analysis of BSM scenarios embedding non-minimal Higgs structures, testified by the following.

* 50+ publications with several hundred citations: a clear measure of global impact.
* 20+ talks at conferences, etc.: example of global Knowledge Transfer (KT).
* Departmental seminars and P/G lectures by all seconded researchers: an example of local KT.
* Tools developed to encode the studied BSM scenarios: an example of effective KT reaching out to the worldwide community.
* An ongoing publishable review of NonMinimalHiggs activities: our dissemination record acting as a catalyst of several outreach efforts.
* A book finalised by two RISE collaborators, https://www.crcpress.com/Supersymmetry-Beyond-Minimality-from-Theory-to-Experiment/Khalil-Moretti/p/book/9781498756730, building upon the results obtained by the network: the ultimate example of KT and outreach.

Finally, about 20 secondments, between those partially or fully completed and those ongoing, are already on record while 10 more have been planned till December 2017.

Final results

The project is built to achieve optimum balance between researchers who are already established leaders in their field (ERs) and those who are either starting a career or at an early stage of it (ESRs). Clearly, as seen by the list of publications across nodes and involving ESRs alongside ERs, the RISE interactions are having a strong impact in helping the latter to start building new networks or strengthen existing ones.

Further notice that this is done around a research topic that is forefront, i.e., the investigation of non-minimal Higgs sectors realised in BSM scenarios. This endeavour is timely, as it is part of the CERN project, one of the largest ever in science. These are exciting times for Europe as it can establish further its leading role in particle physics. Finding a Higgs boson and studying its properties is clearly a landmark in European science, yet, to find more of these objects at the LHC would be an unmistakable evidence that we have to surpass the SM. Hence, the physics community has now and will continue to have its eyes on CERN for a long time.

Through this RISE consortium we have committed European institutions strongly to this project in order to not only make sure that they will take part in (potential) major future discoveries at the LHC but also to strengthen the links between institutions across Europe and with the rest of the world at a time when a scientific revolution is bound to take place, no matter the outcome of the LHC. In fact, even the case of no new discoveries at the CERN machine will represent an exciting time, as we will have to abandon a variety of paradigms about BSM physics, notably, Supersymmetry, as its theoretical consistency requires some of its states to be seen at the LHC.

Under these circumstances, it is clear that the next experimental facility will be an electron-positron collider, designed to study the discovered Higgs boson. Herein, high energy physics research will again be pursued by a worldwide collaboration. This RISE project is therefore also part of the commitment to improve Europe\'s future scope in research and innovation by putting in contact the world leading experts in complementary aspects of Higgs physics at various ends of our planet under the leadership of key European institutions for this new collider era. This RISE collaboration is therefore necessarily of lasting impact.

This RISE consortium is greatly contributing to the success of collider programmes to which Europe is committed in a specific field that is and will inevitably continue to be pursued at these machines. The benefits will be twofold. On the one hand, we believe it to be extremely important that the solution to the discussed physics issues, which will be tackled at these experimental facilities, can have a dominant European contribution. On the other hand, it is mandatory that collaborations with overseas research groups are fostered or maintained, in order to guarantee a truly international aspect to European research. This project is accomplishing both aspects and will see them through successful implementation.

Website & more info

More info: https://sites.google.com/view/risehiggs/home.