Key research themes
1. How can collider experiments such as the HL-LHC and future colliders expand the search for Beyond the Standard Model (BSM) physics?
This research area investigates the potential of current and upcoming high-energy collider experiments to probe BSM physics. It focuses on evaluating the capabilities of the High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC), High Energy LHC (HE-LHC), and proposed future colliders to detect new particles, test theoretical frameworks such as supersymmetry, search for dark matter candidates, and refine the understanding of phenomena like CP violation. This theme matters because collider experiments provide direct means to uncover new physics signatures close to the electroweak scale and beyond, addressing the hierarchy problem and other limitations of the Standard Model.
2. How do extended scalar sectors, particularly Higgs singlet extensions, contribute to BSM physics and cosmology?
This theme covers theoretical explorations and phenomenological implications of augmenting the Standard Model Higgs sector with one or more scalar singlet fields. These extensions are studied for their ability to generate additional scalar particles, provide candidates for dark matter, realize mechanisms of cosmological inflation and reheating, and explain the nature of the cosmological constant. Investigations quantify scalar masses, mixing, decay widths, vacuum expectation values, and potential shapes. Understanding these extensions matters for connecting particle physics with cosmological observations and for designing targeted searches for new scalar states at colliders.
3. What are the theoretical and mathematical frameworks that aim to unify particle physics, nuclear physics, and cosmology beyond the Standard Model?
This research theme encompasses advanced mathematical models and foundational theories proposing unification schemes that connect quantum fields, nuclear structure, particle mass hierarchies, and cosmological phenomena such as dark matter and gravity. These frameworks employ concepts such as harmonic manifolds, solitonic excitations, topological invariants, scalar field condensates, and novel quantum numbers to build holistic descriptions addressing the incompleteness of the Standard Model. The theme is central for progressing towards a theory of everything, enabling predictions of physical constants and particle spectra from first principles.