| DATE: |
2010-02-22 14:00 - 15:00 |
| PLACE: |
4 Go-Kan Rm. 345 |
| TITLE: |
Fermi to Planck: conformal invariance and the standard model |
| CONTACT: |
HYAKUTAKE Yoshifumi, hyaku AT post.kek.jp |
| SPEAKER: |
Professor Hermann Nicolai (Max-Planck-Institut fur Gravitationsphysik, Albert-Einstein-Institut) |
| LANGUAGE: |
English |
| ABSTRACT: |
It is a remarkable fact that the standard model (SM) of particle physics is classically conformally invariant except for a single term: the scalar mass term, commonly introduced for electroweak symmetry breaking. This work is based on the hypothesis that classically unbroken conformal invariance, in conjunction with the Coleman-Weinberg mechanism and the conformal anomaly, can explain the observed hierarchy of scales. I will present evidence that such a scenario might be viable, provided (1) there are no intermediate scales of any kind between the weak scale and the Planck scale, and (2) the RG evolved couplings exhibit neither Landau poles nor instabilities over this whole range of energies. I will also comment on the issue of embedding such a scenario into a UV finte theory of quantum gravity. |
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