Related papers: The little-hierarchy problem is a little problem: …
With the discovery of a particle that seems rather consistent with the minimal Standard Model Higgs boson, attention turns to questions of naturalness, fine-tuning, and what they imply for physics beyond the Standard Model and its discovery…
Little Higgs theories are an attempt to address the little hierarchy problem, i.e., the tension between the naturalness of the electroweak scale and the precision measurements showing no evidence for new physics up to 5-10 TeV. In little…
I reflect on some of the basic aspects of present day Beyond the Standard Model particle physics, focusing mostly on the issues of naturalness, in particular on the so-called hierarchy problem. To all of us, physics as natural science…
Naturalness has for many years been a guiding principle in the search for physics beyond the Standard Model, particularly for understanding the physics of electroweak symmetry breaking. However, the discovery of the Higgs particle at 125…
I present a concise review of the Higgs problem which plays a central role in particle physics today. The Higgs of the minimal Standard Model is so far just a conjecture that needs to be verified or discarded at the LHC. Probably the…
The LHC runs at 7 and 8 TeV have led to the discovery of the Higgs boson at 125 GeV which will remain as one of the major physics discoveries of our time. Another very important result was the surprising absence of any signals of new…
Little Higgs theories are an exciting new possibility for physics at TeV energies. In the Standard Model the Higgs mass suffers from an instability under radiative corrections. This ``hierarchy problem'' motivates much of current physics…
According to the long-standing received wisdom, a "small" value of the Higgs mass - as for instance implied by general unitarity constraints - is highly "unnatural" and essentially $\mbox{requires}$ new physics to be present at or near…
We begin this thesis with an extensive pedagogical introduction aimed at clarifying the foundations of the hierarchy problem. After introducing effective field theory, we discuss renormalization at length from a variety of perspectives. We…
We construct a simple theory in which the fine-tuning of the standard model is significantly reduced. Radiative corrections to the quadratic part of the scalar potential are constrained to be symmetric under a global U(4) x U(4)' symmetry…
The Standard Model Higgs suffers from the hierarchy problem, typically implying new states within the reach of the LHC. If the Higgs is very heavy (~500 GeV) the states that cutoff the quadratic divergence may be beyond the reach of the…
The LHC data have confirmed the Standard Model as the correct theory at the electroweak scale. It successfully explains the experimental results with high precision and all its ingredients, including the Higgs boson, have been finally…
I present a concise review of the major issues and challenges in particle physics at the start of the LHC era. After a brief overview of the Standard Model and of QCD, I will focus on the electroweak symmetry breaking problem which plays a…
Data taking at the LHC is the beginning of a new era in particle physics which will lead us towards understanding the completion of the Standard Model at and beyond the TeV scale. I discuss different approaches to new physics searches:…
Though some LHC searches for new physics exceed the TeV scale, there may be discoveries waiting to be made at much lower masses. We outline a simple quirk model, motivated by models that address the hierarchy problem through neutral…
Light states associated with the hierarchy problem affect the Higgs LHC production and decays. We illustrate this within the MSSM and two simple extensions applying the latest bounds from LHC Higgs searches. Large deviations in the Higgs…
I discuss some essential features of the electroweak hierarchy problem and the ensuing motivation for weak-scale supersymmetry. Taking the hierarchy problem seriously, null results in searches for SUSY at the LHC favor specific regions of…
Constraints from precision electroweak measurements reveal no evidence for new physics up to 5 - 7 TeV, whereas naturalness requires new particles at around 1 TeV to address the stability of the electroweak scale. We show that this "little…
These lectures provide a concise introduction to the so-called "Beyond the Standard Model"' physics, with particular emphasis on the problem of the microscopic origin of the Higgs mass term and of the Electro-Weak symmetry breaking scale in…
For decades, the unnaturalness of the weak scale has been the dominant problem motivating new particle physics, and weak-scale supersymmetry has been the dominant proposed solution. This paradigm is now being challenged by a wealth of…