Research Area Higgs

Hamburg is a world-leading center for particle physics since many decades with numerous achievements. The cluster specifically engages in exploring the underlying physics giving rise to the property of mass of elementary particles, the microscopic mechanism of electroweak symmetry breaking, as well as the Higgs potential and its implications for the thermal evolution of the early universe. Here the broad expertise in collider physics, cosmology and astroparticle physics in Hamburg is indispensable. In parallel, new computational tools and high precision detection techniques are developed. More concretely the efforts pursued in the cluster include:

• Higgs precision physics, additional Higgs bosons and the quantum origin of mass
  The discovery of a Higgs boson and the determination of its properties with increasing precision has revealed significant insight into the physics of electroweak symmetry breaking which enables stringent tests of the predictions of the Standard Model of particle physics and of extended Higgs sectors comprising additional Higgs states. Within the cluster this is pursued as a well-orchestrated effort among experimentalists (working both at ATLAS and CMS), computer scientists and theorists conducting an intense scientific discourse. 

• Connection to the electroweak phase transition in the early universe
  The history of the universe was shaped by the electroweak phase transition that happened during the first instances, namely at about 10^-10 sec., after the big bang. The occurrence of the electroweak phase transition and the way it proceeded was triggered by the properties of the Higgs sector. Future gravitational wave observatories may be able to detect gravitational wave signals originating from the electroweak phase transition. Extensive experimental and theoretical studies are conducted within the cluster in order to improve our understanding at the interface of cosmology and particle physics. 

• New detection techniques, theoretical methods and tools
  Crucial ingredients for substantial progress in this field are the development of sophisticated data analysis tools, often provided by the implementation of artificial intelligence, advanced theoretical methods and improved detection devices. These activities are a prominent element in the research focus of the cluster.