higgs

The basic reason the higgs is too massive theoretically has to do with its interaction with other particles; for example, it’s interaction with the top quark provides a very large contribution to its mass.

A Busy Day « Imaginary Potential 2008

When physicist say the “Higgs” what they really mean is “the Higgs, or something very much like it” (a higgs sector, little higgs, technicolor, etc, i.e. a particle or particles responsible for electroweak symmetry breaking).

LHC Fever! (And more bad science journalism) « Imaginary Potential 2008

When physicist say the “Higgs” what they really mean is “the Higgs, or something very much like it” (a higgs sector, little higgs, technicolor, etc, i.e. a particle or particles responsible for electroweak symmetry breaking).

September « 2008 « Imaginary Potential 2008

There are many other ways of inducing electroweak symmetry breaking (a higgs sector, little higgs, technicolor, etc), but my understanding is that precision electroweak constraints can rule out a lot of these models (for example, I think technicolor is mostly considered ruled out), and that plain old vanilla Higgs still looks like the best bet.

September « 2008 « Imaginary Potential 2008

The hierarchy problem is basically this: the standard model “predicts” a higgs boson which is too massive.

A Busy Day « Imaginary Potential 2008

There are many other ways of inducing electroweak symmetry breaking (a higgs sector, little higgs, technicolor, etc), but my understanding is that precision electroweak constraints can rule out a lot of these models (for example, I think technicolor is mostly considered ruled out), and that plain old vanilla Higgs still looks like the best bet.

LHC Fever! (And more bad science journalism) « Imaginary Potential 2008

Supersymmetry solves this problem by providing a “superpartner” (the “stop quark”) which cancels the interaction with the top and keeps the higgs light.

A Busy Day « Imaginary Potential 2008

Specifically, testing electroweak sector models (all this higgs hubub) requires identifying and differentiating Z and W bosons real well.

Particle Flow Calorimetry « Imaginary Potential 2008

The basic lesson of little higgs, in my view, is that you can have theories with partners that cancel the top quark that are not “super”.

A Busy Day « Imaginary Potential 2008

Specifically, testing electroweak sector models (all this higgs hubub) requires identifying and differentiating Z and W bosons real well.

July « 2008 « Imaginary Potential 2008