Higgs Boson – and Beyond

The Pacific Institute of Theoretical Physics in cooperation with St. John’s College presents:

Last year’s experimental discovery of the Higgs Boson culminated a search that spanned almost 50 years since the original theoretical prediction of Higgs, Brout, and Englert (for which this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics was finally awarded).   This talk will discuss the unique role the Higgs particle plays in our current understanding of the fundamental building blocks of Nature, why it remained so elusive, and how it was finally discovered at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva.  However, the observed mass of the Higgs Boson presents a very awkward challenge to our current theory, the ‘Standard Model’.  Some possible responses to this challenge would have far-reaching implications, such as the existence of new forces or new dimensions, and these may also be within reach of the LHC experiments in the next few years.

These monthly seminars will provide a forum to discuss topics in foundations  of physics and philosophy of science, centering on the “quantum revolution” and its impact on science, philosophy, and society at large.  The lectures are open to the public and are intended primarily for non-specialist audiences, though some technical detail in unavoidable.  For details visit http://pitp.physics.ubc.ca/quant_lect/.