Chairs
Professor John Ellis CBE FRS, Kings College London, UK
Professor Jonathan Ellis
Jonathan Ellis has made numerous contributions to the theory of elementary particles and especially unified gauge theories. Particularly notable were the first proposal of three jet structure (subsequently seen experimentally) as a gluon signal, and the first precise application of the renormalization group to grand unified theories, with the first precise estimate of sin2 θ W. Works on the theory of CP violation, on the phenomenology of the Higgs boson, and on the implications of grand unified theories for the generation of baryon number in the early Universe, have also attracted much attention. His gift for communication (his summer school lectures and reviews are models of their kind), and his special concern with the experimental implications of topical theories, make him a key figure in the discussion of new high-energy physics projects.
09:05-09:30
Genesis of electroweak unification
Sir Tom Kibble CBE FRS, Imperial College London, UK
Abstract
The idea of unification has played a key role in the major advances in physics. Maxwell’s unification of electricity, magnetism and light was one of the great steps forward. A more recent advance in the same direction was the development of the unified electroweak theory, incorporating the symmetry-breaking Higgs mechanism. This talk will review the early history of this development as seen from the standpoint of a member of Abdus Salam's group at Imperial College. It will describe the state of physics in the years after the Second World War, explain how the goal of a unified gauge theory of weak and electromagnetic interactions emerged, the obstacles encountered, in particular the Goldstone theorem, and how they were overcome, followed by a brief account of more recent history, culminating in the historic discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012.
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Sir Tom Kibble CBE FRS, Imperial College London, UK
Sir Tom Kibble CBE FRS, Imperial College London, UK
Tom Kibble was educated in Edinburgh and joined the Theoretical Physics Group at Imperial College London led by Professor Abdus Salam in 1959. He became Professor of Theoretical Physics in 1970, and was Head of the Physics Department from 1983 to 1991. He retired in 1998 and is now Emeritus Professor and Distinguished Research Fellow. Tom’s research interests have been in quantum field theory, high-energy particle physics and cosmology, especially spontaneous symmetry breaking and topological defect formation. He is best known for work on the mechanism for giving mass to gauge bosons, and was one of the first proponents of the idea of cosmic strings which may have been formed in the very early Universe. Kibble was elected FRS in 1980 and knighted in 2014. Among numerous other awards, he has received Royal Medals from the Royal Societies of both London and Edinburgh.
09:45-10:15
Unification today
Professor Frank Wilczek, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
Abstract
Maxwell's equations arose in the study of electrodynamics, but their influence in fundamental physics has been far wider. Our present theories of the strong and weak subnuclear forces are based on profound, but conceptually simple, generalizations of Maxwell's equations. The deep concept of local symmetry, which emerged from the study of Maxwell's equations, underlies all these theories, and also general relativity, our theory of nature's remaining force. These commonalities give guidance for constructing a unified theory of all the forces. In recent years the probable structure of that theory has clarified. The unified theory leads to several qualitative and semi-quantitative insights that go beyond the theories of the separate forces, and to one major quantitative success. The theory suggests many new phenomena, whose existence - or not - is the subject of ongoing experimental investigations.
In this talk I will attempt to convey a meaningful flavor of the underlying ideas using appropriate metaphors and imagery, and an appreciation of some major live issues at the research frontier
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Professor Frank Wilczek, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
Professor Frank Wilczek, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
Professor Frank Wilczek is one of the most eminent theoretical physicists at work today. When only 21 years old and a graduate student at Princeton University, in collaboration with David Gross he discovered the fundamental equations for one of the four basic forces of nature: the strong force. That work led to a Nobel Prize. He is also known, among other things, for the development of unified field theories, the invention of axions, and the discovery and exploitation of new forms of quantum statistics (anyons). At present, he is working on the expansion of perception, both for practical purposes and for exploration of the quantum world. Professor Wilczek has received many honors. Notably, he was among the earliest MacArthur Fellows (1982-87) and in 2004 he received the Nobel Prize in Physics. He contributes regularly to Nature and to other scientific forums, explaining topics at the frontiers of physics to wider scientific audiences, and is much in demand as a public lecturer. His new book, A Beautiful Question (Penguin), will be appearing in July 2015.
11:00-11:30
Standard model: how far can it go, and how can we tell?
Professor Jonathan Butterworth, UCL, UK
Abstract
The Standard Model of particle physics encapsulates our current best understanding of physics at the smallest distances and highest energies. It incorporates Quantum Electrodynamics (the quantised version of Maxwell’s electromagnetism) and the weak and strong interactions, and has survived unmodified for decades, save for the inclusion of non-zero neutrino masses after the observation of neutrino oscillations in the late 1990s. Butterworth will review a selection of these successes, including the remarkably successful prediction of a new scalar boson, a qualitatively new kind of object observed in 2012 at the Large Hadron Collider. New calculational techniques and experimental advances challenge the Standard Model across an ever-wider range of phenomena, now extending significantly above the electroweak symmetry breaking scale. Butterworth will outline some of the consequences of these new challenges, and discuss some speculative ideas of new physics which there may still be to find within the Standard Model itself.
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Professor Jonathan Butterworth, UCL, UK
Professor Jonathan Butterworth, UCL, UK
Jon grew up in Manchester and did his degrees at Oxford University. He worked at the DESY laboratory in Hamburg, first employed by Penn State University (1992-1995), then by UCL. Since 2000 he has worked on the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider, first helping build it, and then analysing the data, especially on hadronic jets. He is currently head of Physics & Astronomy at UCL. He writes regularly for the Guardian, and recently published a book, Smashing Physics, about his experiences working on the discovery of the Higgs Boson.
11:45-12:15
Beyond the standard model of particle physics
Professor Tejinder Virdee FRS, Imperial College London, UK
Abstract
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN and its experiments were conceived to tackle the profound open questions in particle physics, such as why the particles carrying the weak interactions are massive whereas the photon associated with Maxwell's theory is massless. The mechanism for generating particle masses has been elucidated with the discovery of the Higgs boson. Many open questions still await clues or answers, from the LHC and other experiments, including the composition of dark matter and of dark energy, why there is more matter than antimatter, do we live in more dimensions than the familiar four and what is the exact path to take to attain the unification of all the fundamental forces. This talk will discuss the status of, and prospects for, the search for new particles, symmetries and forces in order to address the open questions.
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Professor Tejinder Virdee FRS, Imperial College London, UK
Professor Tejinder Virdee FRS, Imperial College London, UK
Tejinder (Jim) Virdee is Professor of Physics at Imperial College, London. After the UA1 experiment (1990), where W and Z bosons were discovered, Virdee concentrated on the physics and experimentation at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. He is one of the founding members of the Compact Muon Solenoid Collaboration (CMS) at the LHC. Virdee has played a major role in all phases of the experiment, from conception and design, through construction to the extraction of science that have already lasted around 25 years. He pioneered some of the techniques used in its calorimeters crucial for the discovery of a Higgs boson announced by the CMS experiment in July 2012, along with the sister experiment ATLAS. Virdee was the Spokesperson of the CMS Collaboration for three years, from 2007, that included the start of collision data taking, and was its Deputy Spokesperson from 1993 to 2006. Virdee’s current work involves studies of the newly found Higgs boson, search for physics beyond the standard model of particle physics and the definition of the upgraded CMS detector for very high luminosity LHC running. Amongst the prizes he has won is the 2013 European Physical Society-HEPP prize co-awarded for his “pioneering and outstanding leadership role in the making of the CMS experiment”. Virdee was made Knight Bachelor in 2014.
12:30-13:00
Theoretical landscape beyond the Standard Model
Dr Veronica Sanz, University of Sussex, UK
Abstract
Collisions at high energies and intensity, light shining through walls, satellites deciphering the echoes of the Big-Bang - these are few examples of the ingenuity displayed in searching for physics beyond the Standard Model. Alas, proposals beyond the Standard Model abound, leading to a theoretical landscape which would seem far too extensive to be explored. However, this talk will explain how this search is about bringing to light new principles in Nature, principles which would explain the puzzles in the Standard Model and provide a deeper and more unified understanding of Particle Physics. These principles will then be used as a guide to describe the numerous proposals of new physics, as well as give examples of what kind of new phenomena they predict.
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Dr Veronica Sanz, University of Sussex, UK
Dr Veronica Sanz, University of Sussex, UK
Born in Spain, Veronica Sanz held postdoctoral positions at Durham and Boston. Sanz was a visiting scholar at Harvard and got a Marie Curie at Yale. She obtained a professorship at York (Canada) in 2008, was an Associate at CERN in 2012 and moved to the UK in 2013.