Implications of the Higgs boson discovery

With the discovery of the Higgs boson by the LHC in 2012, a new era started in which we have direct experimental information on the physics behind the breaking of the electroweak (EW) symmetry. This breaking plays a fundamental role in our understanding of particle physics and sits at the high-energy frontier beyond which we expect new physics that supersedes the Standard Model (SM). In this review we summarize what we have learned so far from LHC data in this respect. In the absence of new particles having been discovered, we discuss how the scrutiny of the properties of the Higgs boson (in search for deviations from SM expectations) is crucial as it can point the way for physics beyond the SM. We also emphasize how the value of the Higgs mass could have far-reaching implications for the stability of the EW vacuum if there is no new physics up to extremely large energies.     

Limits on a composite Higgs boson

Precision electroweak data are generally believed to constrain the Higgs boson mass to lie below approximately 190 GeV at 95% confidence level. The standard Higgs model is, however, trivial and can only be an effective field theory valid below some high energy scale characteristic of the underlying nontrivial physics. Corrections to the custodial isospin violating parameter T arising from interactions at this higher energy scale dramatically enlarge the allowed range of Higgs mass. We perform a fit to precision electroweak data and determine the region in the (m(H),delta T) plane that is consistent with experimental results. Overlaying the estimated size of corrections to T arising from the underlying dynamics, we find that a Higgs mass up to 500 GeV is allowed.     

Search for a lighter Higgs boson in the Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model

Following the discovery of the Higgs boson with a mass of approximately 125 Ge V at the LHC, many studies have been performed from both the theoretical and experimental viewpoints to search for a new Higgs Boson that is lighter than 125 Ge V. We explore the possibility of constraining a lighter neutral scalar Higgs boson h_1 and a lighter pseudo-scalar Higgs boson a_1 in the Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model by restricting the next-to-lightest scalar Higgs boson h_2 to be the one observed at the LHC after applying the phenomenological constraints and those from experimental measurements. Such lighter particles are not yet completely excluded by the latest results of the search for a lighter Higgs boson in the diphoton decay channel from LHC data. Our results show that some new constraints on the Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model could be obtained for a lighter scalar Higgs boson at the LHC if such a search is performed by experimental collaborations and more data. The potentials of discovery for other interesting decay channels of such a lighter neutral scalar or pseudo-scalar particle are also discussed.     

Precision Higgs physics at the CEPC

The discovery of the Higgs boson with its mass around 125 GeV by the ATLAS and CMS Collaborations marked the beginning of a new era in high energy physics.The Higgs boson will be the subject of extensive studies of the ongoing LHC program.At the same time,lepton collider based Higgs factories have been proposed as a possible next step beyond the LHC,with its main goal to precisely measure the properties of the Higgs boson and probe potential new physics associated with the Higgs boson.The Circular Electron Positron Collider(CEPC)is one of such proposed Higgs factories.The CEPC is an e~+e~- circular collider proposed by and to be hosted in China.Located in a tunnel of approximately 100 km in circumference,it will operate at a center-of-mass energy of 240 GeV as the Higgs factory.In this paper,we present the first estimates on the precision of the Higgs boson property measurements achievable at the CEPC and discuss implications of these measurements.     

Standard Model theory calculations and experimental tests

To present knowledge, all the physics at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) can be described in the framework of the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics. Indeed the newly discovered Higgs boson with a mass close to 125 GeV seems to confirm the predictions of the SM. Thus, besides looking for direct manifestations of the physics beyond the SM, one of the primary missions of the LHC is to perform ever more stringent tests of the SM. This requires not only improved theoretical developments to produce testable predictions and provide experiments with reliable event generators, but also sophisticated analyses techniques to overcome the formidable experimental environment of the LHC and perform precision measurements. The present article proposes an overview of the present theoretical tools and of the experimental results in the field of strong and electroweak interactions.     

What can we learn from the total width of the Higgs boson?

As one of the key properties of the Higgs boson, the Higgs total width is sensitive to the global profile of the Higgs boson couplings, and thus new physics would modify the Higgs width. We investigate the total width in various new physics models, including various scalar extensions, composite Higgs models, and the fraternal twin Higgs model. Typically, the Higgs width is smaller than the standard model value due to mixture with other scalars if the Higgs is elementary, or curved Higgs field space for the composite Higgs. On the other hand, except for the possible invisible decay mode, the enhanced Yukawa coupling in the two Higgs doublet model or the exotic fermion embeddings in the composite Higgs could enhance the Higgs width greatly. The precision measurement of the Higgs total width at the high-luminosity LHC can be used to discriminate certain new physics models.     

Modified Yang-Mills Theory and Electroweak Interactions

Since the Higgs boson of the standard electroweak model has not been detecteddespite many experimental attempts, nonstandard electroweak models notincluding the Higgs boson may be worthy of consideration; one of them isproposed here. This new model of electroweak interactions is based on theYang-Mills theory completed by a nontrivial condition at infinity for theYang-Mills potentials corresponding to the zero-field intensities. It is shown thatwithin the framework of this model the three vector potentials of the Yang-Millstheory allow one to describe both the Maxwell electromagnetic interactions andthe Fermi weak interactions and to obtain the known value of the Z ⁰ boson mass.     

Physics prospects at the hadron colliders

I start with a brief introduction to the elementary particles and their interactions, Higgs mechanism and supersymmetry. The major physics objectives of the Tevatron and LHC colliders are identified. The status and prospects of the top quark, charged Higgs boson and superparticle searches are discussed in detail, while those of the neutral Higgs boson(s) are covered in a parallel talk by R.J.N. Phillips at this workshop.     

Physics prospects at the hadron colliders

I start with a brief introduction to the elementary particles and their interactions, Higgs mechanism and supersymmetry. The major physics objectives of the Tevatron and LHC colliders are identified. The status and prospects of the top quark, charged Higgs boson and superparticle searches are discussed in detail, while those of the neutral Higgs boson(s) are covered in a parallel talk by R.J.N. Phillips at this workshop.     

Nambu's Nobel Prize,the meson and the mass of visible matter

The electroweak Higgs boson has been discovered in ongoing experiments at the LHC, leading to a mass of this particle of 126 GeV. This Higgs boson mediates the generation of mass for elementary particles, including the mass of elementary (current) quarks. These current‐quark masses leave 98% of the mass of the atom unexplained. This large fraction is mediated by strong interaction, where instead of the Higgs boson the σ meson is the mediating particle. Though already introduced in 1957 by Schwinger, the σ meson has been integrated out in many theories of hadron properties because it had not been observed and was doubted to exist. With the observation of the σ meson in recent experiments on Compton scattering by the nucleon at MAMI (Mainz) it has become timely to review the status of experimental and theoretical researches on this topic.     

Measuring hidden Higgs and strongly-interacting Higgs scenarios

Higgs couplings can be affected by physics beyond the Standard Model. We study modifications through interactions with a hidden sector and in specific composite Higgs models accessible at the LHC. Both scenarios give rise to congruent patterns of universal, or partially universal, shifts. In addition, Higgs decays to the hidden sector may lead to invisible decay modes which we also exploit. Experimental bounds on such potential modifications will measure the concordance of an observed Higgs boson with the Standard Model.     

Higgs and beyond the Standard Model

Theories beyond standard model enhance enormously Higgs boson pair production at threshold that can be studied at SSC, LHC or LEP-2. This process can test the existence of non-standard physics at much higher energy. We analyze the constraints on Higgs boson production imposed by non-standard physics.     

Analysis of electroweak precision data and prospects for future improvements

We update our previous work on an analysis of the electroweak data by including new and partly preliminary data available up to the 1996 summer conferences. The new results on the partial decay widths into and hadrons now offer a consistent interpretation of all data in the minimal standard model. The value extracted for the strong interaction coupling constant agrees well with determinations in other areas. New constraints on the universal parameters , and are obtained from the updated measurements. No signal of new physics is found in the , , analysis once the SM contributions with GeV and those of not a too heavy Higgs boson are accounted for. The naive QCD-like technicolor model is now ruled out at the 99% CL even for the minimal model with . In the absence of a significant new physics effect in the electroweak observables, constraints on masses of the top quark, , and Higgs boson, , are derived as a function of and the QED effective coupling . The preferred range of depends rather strongly on the actual value of : for , while for at 95% CL. Prospects due to forthcoming improved measurements of asymmetries, the mass of the weak boson , and are discussed. Anticipating uncertainties of 0.00020 for , 20 MeV for , and 2 GeV for , the new physics contributions to the , , parameters will be constrained more severely, and, within the SM, the logarithm of the Higgs mass can be constrained to about . The better constraints on , , and on within the minimal SM should be accompanied with matching precision in . Received: 18 June 1997     

Determining the chirality of Yukawa couplings via single charged Higgs boson production in polarized photon collisions

When the charged Higgs boson is too heavy to be produced in pairs, the predominant production mechanism at linear colliders is via the single charged Higgs boson production processes, such as e(-)e(+)-->bcH+,taunuH+ and gammagamma-->bcH+,taunuH+. We show that the yield of a heavy charged Higgs boson at a gammagamma collider is typically 1 or 2 orders of magnitude larger than that at an e(-)e(+) collider. Furthermore, a polarized gammagamma collider can determine the chirality of the Yukawa couplings of fermions with charged Higgs boson via single charged Higgs boson production and, thus, discriminate models of new physics.     

Non-renormalizable Yukawa interactions and Higgs physics

We explore a scenario in the Standard Model in which dimension-four Yukawa couplings are forbidden by a symmetry, and the Yukawa interactions are dominated by effective dimension-six interactions. In this case, the Higgs interactions to the fermions are enhanced in a large way, whereas its interaction with the gauge bosons remains the same as in the Standard Model. In hadron colliders, Higgs boson production via gluon-gluon fusion increases by a factor of nine. Higgs decay widths to fermion-antifermion pairs also increase by the same factor, whereas the decay widths to photon-photon and γZ are reduced. Current Tevatron exclusion range for the Higgs mass increases to ∼146-222 GeV in our scenario, and new physics must appear at a scale below a TeV.     

Higgs type excitations in cold atom systems

Higgs type excitations are the excitations which give mass to particles. The Higgs type excitations has a critical role both in particle physics and condensed matter physics. In particle physics, the suspected Higgs boson has been found by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in 2012. In condensed matter physics, the Higgs type excitations relate to order phase of the system. In this review, we present an overview of recent studies on the Higgs type excitations both in non-interacting and interacting cold atom systems. First, in non-interacting cold atom system, by synthesizing artificial non-Abelian gauge potential, we demonstrate that when a non-Abelian gauge potential is reduced to Abelian potential, the Abelian part constructs spin-orbit coupling, and the non-Abelian part emerges Higgs excitations. Secondly, the Higgs excitations which are the reputed Higgs amplitude mode in interacting cold atom system are discussed. We review the theoretical model and the experimental detection of Higgs amplitude mode in two dimensional superfluid. The observation of both Higgs type excitations in real experiments are also discussed.     

In search of elementary spin 0 particles

The Standard Model of strong and electroweak interactions uses point-like spin 1/2 particles as the building bricks of matter and point-like spin 1 particles as the force carriers. One of the most important questions to be answered by the present and future particle physics experiments is whether the elementary spin 0 particles exist, and if they do, what are their interactions with the spin 1/2 and spin 1 particles. Spin 0 particles have been searched extensively over the last decades. Several initial claims of their discoveries were finally disproved in the final experimental scrutiny process. The recent observation of the excess of events at the LHC in the final states involving a pair of vector bosons, or photons, is commonly interpreted as the discovery of the first elementary scalar particle, the Higgs boson. In this paper we recall examples of claims and subsequent disillusions in precedent searches spin 0 particles. We address the question if the LHC Higgs discovery can already be taken for granted, or, as it turned out important in the past, whether it requires a further experimental scrutiny before the existence of the first ever found elementary scalar particle is proven beyond any doubt. An example of the Double Drell–Yan process for which such a scrutiny is indispensable is discussed in some detail.     

Study of CEPC performance with different collision energies and geometric layouts

The Circular Electron-Positron Collider(CEPC) is one of the largest projects planned for high energy physics in China.It would serve first as a Higgs factory and then upgrade to a hadron collider.In this paper we give the 50 km and 100 km design for both single ring and double ring schemes,including Z boson,W boson and Higgs boson,by using an optimized method.Also,we give the potential of CEPC running at the Z and W poles.We analyse the relationship of luminosity with circumference and filling factor,which gives a way to evaluate the choice of geometry,and compare the nominal performances of CEPC-SPPC,LHC and FCC.     

Further investigation of the model-independent probe of heavy neutral Higgs bosons at LHC Run 2

In one of our previous papers,we provided general,effective Higgs interactions for the lightest Higgs boson h(SM-like) and a heavier neutral Higgs boson H based on the effective Lagrangian formulation up to the dim-6 interactions,and then proposed two sensitive processes for probing H.We showed in several examples that the resonance peak of H and its dim-6 effective coupling constants(ECC) can be detected at LHC Run 2 with reasonable integrated luminosity.In this paper,we further perform a more thorough study of the most sensitive process,pp →VH*→VVV,providing information about the relations between the 1σ,3σ,5σ statistical significance and the corresponding ranges of the Higgs ECC for an integrated luminosity of 100 fb~(-1).These results have two useful applications in LHC Run 2:(A) realizing the experimental determination of the ECC in the dim-6 interactions if H is found and,(B) obtaining the theoretical exclusion bounds if H is not found.Some alternative processes sensitive for certain ranges of the ECC are also analyzed.     

Spontaneous CP violating phase as the CKM matrix phase

We propose that the CP violating phase in the CKM mixing matrix is identical to the CP phases responsible for the spontaneous CP violation in the Higgs potential. A multi-Higgs model with Peccei–Quinn (PQ) symmetry is constructed to realize this idea. The CP violating phase does not vanish when all Higgs masses become large. In general, here are flavor changing neutral current (FCNC) interactions mediated by neutral Higgs bosons at the tree level. However, unlike general multi-Higgs models, the FCNC Yukawa couplings are fixed in terms of the quark masses and CKM mixing angles. Implications for meson–anti-meson mixing, including recent data on D–D̄ mixing, and the electric dipole moment (EDM) of the neutron are studied. We find that the neutral Higgs boson masses can be at the order of one hundred GeV. The neutron EDM can be close to the present experimental upper bound.