Models Beyond the Standard Model

After  are set to unity, is the only dimension left in physics. The fundamental law of physics in nature has been probed down to the length scale of order , which is equivalent to the energy scale of order . Nothing is known for sure yet, however, what is happening at even shorter distance scales.

Up to now, we have seen that a quantum field theory with quarks, leptons and vector bosons for three different forces describes reasonably well all the experimental data available so far. Among the vector bosons, however, those corresponding to the weak force (which is responsible for theof nucleons) are known to have masses. There are three such vector bosons, and they are called, or weak bosons, as a whole. From the consistency of quantum field theories, it is known that something must be behind the non-zero masses of these vector bosons. It has not been confirmed experimentally yet how these masses are generated.

What is called the Standard Model provides a simple theoretical idea how the weak bosons acquire masses. According to the Standard Model, the masses originate from condensation of quanta of a new scalar boson, called Higgs boson. The Higgs boson is the last missing piece of the Standard Model, and will be discovered in experiments in near future, if the weak bosons have masses through the mechanism predicted by the Standard Model.

Is that the end of the story? Maybe ..., but maybe not. Let us think about the following questions.

• The Higgs boson is the only scalar field in the Standard Model; all other dynamical degrees of freedom in the Standard Model are either fermions or vector elds. Why does the Standard Model have one scalar field, and just one? Why does its condensation develop?
• The Newton constant  corresponds to an energy scale . Why is there a huge hierarchy of order  between this energy scale and the weak boson masses of order , and how can the weak boson masses remain so small under quantum corrections?

In order to solve these questions theoretically, various models beyond the Standard Model have been constructed so far, and we still continue to do so in quest of a better solution to these problems. Once we have concrete models, we can examine whether such models are really consistent with all the available experimental data, predict what kind of signals can be expected in future experiments, and even propose experiments to confirm such models.

The origin of the masses of the weak bosons is not the only puzzle of the Standard Model. It is known that huge fraction of the universe consists of dark matter and dark energy. It is very unlikely that dark matter is actually the ordinary matter particles in the Standard Model. This is where we find another motivation to extend the Standard Model. Our universe may have become so large because of an inflationary process in the early universe, and quantum fluctuations of a scalar field may become the fluctuations of density in the early universe, which eventually become galaxies and clusters of galaxies. So, here is another motivation to introduce a new degree of freedom and extend the Standard Model. Such cosmological issues as inflation, primordial density perturbations and dark matter motivate extensions of the Standard Model, and models in quantum field theories are the appropriate framework in order to work on these issues.

Recent reports of excess in high-energy cosmic ray fluxes, deviation from the Standard-Model prediction of the anomalous magnetic moment of muon, and some other reports of deviations from the Standard Model predictions may also be indications of some physics beyond the Standard Model. We therefore seek for theoretical models that account for these phenomena.

We also address the following problems. The Standard Model is described by a quantum field theory with about 30 parameters, and the values of these parameters can be determined only by measuring them experimentally. Would it be possible to determine them theoretically, by considering theoretical frameworks that contain the Standard Model?

The thermal history of early universe is described very well by the Standard Model at least back to the era with the temperature of order MeV, but it is only with several input parameter values of initial condition of the universe. Those initial condition parameters include baryon asymmetry, normalization of density contrast and the amount of dark energy. How are these initial condition parameters set? Once again, it is impossible to think about such problems without a model that extends the Standard Model.

Group Members

Chuan-Ren Chen

Collider phenomenology of the Standard Model and models beyond the Standard Model, including SUSY and Little Higgs models. Examining the interplay between the LHC phenomenology and cosmology.

Won Sang Cho

Supersymmetry/Extra Dimension models, and their collider and dark matter phenomemology.

Damien Easson

Physics beyond the standard model to explain the origin of the dark components of the Universe.

Motoi Endo

Supersymmetric models, including collider phenomenology and particle cosmology.

Koichi Hamaguchi

SUSY models and their LHC phenomenology and application to cosmology (baryogenesis, BBN constraints, dark matter and its signatures).

Junji Hisano

Supersymmetric models. Search for clues in accelerator and non-accelerator physics. Construction of realistic models at TeV and at GUT scales.

Ken-iti Izawa

Gauge/gravity-mediated supersymmetry breaking. Supersymmetric inflation. United models.

William Klemm

Signatures from various beyond the standard models. Distinguishing from one another at a collider. Determination of spins of new particles.

Sourav Mandal

Models beyond the Standard Model, and their signatures in astrophysics, cosmic rays and colliders.

Hitoshi Murayama

Supersymmetry breaking models and phenomenology.

Hirosi Ooguri

General constraints on low energy effective theories that arise from superstring theory or any other consistent theory of quantum gravity. Supersymmetry breaking mechanisms in gauge theories and superstring theory.

Seong Chan Park

Various ideas of the BSM: warped extra dimension, model of EWSB in the context of Gauge-Higgs unification, orbifold GUT, littel Higgs etc.

Jing Shu

Warped extra dimension models. Strongly coupled theory.

Matt Sudano

Dynamical supersymmetry breaking and its mediation.

Fuminobu Takahashi

Supersymmetry. Link between supersymmetric models and cosmology, such as SUSY breaking, dark matter, and SUSY inflation models.

Kai Wang

Model building of BSM physics, particular SUSY models as well as neutrino models. Their collider tests at the CERN LHC.

Taizan Watari

Model building and phenomenology beyond the Standard Model in general. SUSY breaking and mediation, flavor pattern, GUT, inflation, Peccei-Quinn axion, quintessence, landscapes.

Tsutomu Yanagida

PAMELA and ATIC data searching for a convincing model that explains the observed anomalies.