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# Particle Physics

This series consists of talks in the areas of Particle Physics, High Energy Physics & Quantum Field Theory.

## Seminar Series Events/Videos

Currently there are no upcoming talks in this series.

## What Can We Learn from Precision Higgs

Vendredi juin 13, 2014
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In the coming years, LHC experiments will measure Higgs properties, such as its couplings, with increasing precision. Electron-positron Higgs factories, such as the ILC or TLEP, would be able to achieve even better precision. In this talk, I will discuss some of the physics questions that can be addressed by a precision Higgs coupling measurement program. First, the issue of naturalness of the electroweak scale can be addressed in a robust, model-independent manner.

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## Are the recent IceCube events hinting at O(100) TeV decaying dark matter?

Jeudi mai 22, 2014
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The IceCube detector has recently reported the observation of 28 events at previously unexplored energies. While the statistics of the observed events are still low, these events hint at the existence of a neutrino flux over and above the atmospheric neutrino background. We investigate the possibility that a significant component of the additional neutrino flux originates due to the decay of a very heavy dark matter (VHDM) particle via several possible channels into standard model particles.

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## New strong interactions and the t t-bar asymmetry

Mardi mai 13, 2014
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The CDF and D0 experiments at Tevatron measure a top-quark forward-backward
asymmetry significantly larger than the standard-model prediction.
We construct a model that involves new strong interactions at the electroweak scale
and can explain the measured asymmetry. Our model possesses a flavor symmetry
which allows to evade flavor and collider constraints, while it still permits flavor-violating
couplings of order 1 which are needed to generate the asymmetry via light t-channel vectors.

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## Noncommutative geometry and the symmetries of the standard model

Mardi mai 06, 2014
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I will describe Connes approach to the standard model based on spectral noncommutative geometry with particular emphasis on the symmetries. The model poses constraints which are satisfied by the standard model group, and does not leave much room for other possibilities. There is however a possibility for a larger symmetry (the grand algebra'') which may also be instrumental to obtain the correct mass of the Higgs.

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## Boson Tagging with Wavelets

Mardi avr 15, 2014
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I'll present a proof-of-concept new technique for tagging boosted objects which decay into two colored particles based on the wavelet transform. It is able to moderately improve the sensitivity of searches for such particles by 6-7%. I will also discuss future directions of applicability.

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## GeV Gamma-Rays from the Central Milky Way and the Case for Annihilating Dark Matter

Mercredi mar 26, 2014
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Past studies have identified a spatially extended excess of ~1-3 GeV gamma rays from the Galactic Center and inner Galaxy, consistent with the emission expected from annihilating thermal relic dark matter. I will describe recent improvements in the characterization of this signal, which demonstrate that it is spherically symmetric, centered on the Galactic Center, and with a spatial profile consistent with annihilation from a cusped NFW profile.

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## Naturalness and the Weak Gravity Conjecture

Mardi mar 25, 2014
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The weak gravity conjecture (WGC) asserts a powerful consistency condition on gauge theories coupled to quantum gravity: an Abelian, long-range force requires a state of charge q and mass m such that q > m/mPl. Failure of this condition implies the existence of stable black hole remnants and is in tension with no-hair theorems. In this paper, we argue that the WGC creates a non- perturbative obstruction to naturalness, which is the notion that dimensionless coefficients should take on O(1) values in the absence of enhanced symmetry.

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## Before the Bang

Mardi mar 18, 2014
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The simplest black hole solution in asymptotic AdS spacetime, the eternal 3-dimensional BTZ black hole, is studied from the viewpoint of AdS/CFT duality. We identify a class of non-local correlators on the CFT side that allow us to generalize the notion of quantum gravity "S-matrix" to scattering inside the horizon. Since the interior of the horizon is a cosmological spacetime with a big bang/crunch-like singularity, our construction can be interpreted as identifying generally coordinate invariant observables of quantum gravity in a simple cosmology.

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## Large Tensor-to-Scalar Ratio in Small-Field Inflation

Mardi fév 25, 2014
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The production of gravitational waves from cosmic inflation > is normally bounded by the inflaton field excursion. This relation, > which is often referred to as the Lyth bound, claims that > observationally large gravitational waves are produced only if the > inflaton has a super-Planckian field range. In this talk I will point > out that this general belief is not necessarily true when there are > additional light fields producing density perturbations.

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## Sequestering the Standard Model Vacuum Energy

Vendredi fév 21, 2014
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We propose a very simple reformulation of General Relativity, which completely sequesters from gravity {\it all} of the vacuum energy from a matter sector, including all loop corrections and renders all contributions from phase transitions automatically small. The idea is to make the dimensional parameters in the matter sector functionals of the 4-volume element of the universe. For them to be nonzero, the universe should be finite in spacetime.

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## RECENT PUBLIC LECTURE

### Art McDonald: A Deeper Understanding of the Universe from 2 km Underground

Speaker: Arthur B McDonald