Theory Vision talk at LHCP2018

TL;DR

This paper emphasizes recent progress and future prospects in the Higgs sector of the Standard Model, highlighting its unique features and the importance of precision and broader search strategies at the LHC.

Contribution

It underscores the significance of the Higgs sector's Yukawa interactions and potential structure, offering a new perspective on the ongoing particle physics research landscape.

Findings

Advances in understanding the Higgs Yukawa interactions

Potential for increased search reach at the LHC

Growing importance of precision measurements in collider physics

Abstract

Particle physics is sometimes described as going through a crisis, notably because of the continued lack of discovery of physics beyond the Standard Model, despite the LHC having operated at close to maximal energy for some years now. Here, I argue that we should not underestimate the significance of recent progress and future prospects in the Higgs sector of the Standard Model. This is especially the case for the Yukawa interactions and the structure of the Higgs potential, both of which are unlike any sector that has been established and stress-tested before in particle physics. Other topics that I touch on include the still substantial scope for increasing the reach of searches at LHC, the increasing role of precision in hadron-collider physics and the rich interplay that is developing between heavy-ion and proton-proton physics.