Prof. Csaba Csaki, Cornell

"Particle physics at the crossroads"

Abstract: Particle physics had a triumphant march since the 1950's, which culminated in the discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012 at the LHC in Geneva, Switzerland. Our current picture of fundamental particles and their interactions, the Standard Model, explains all collider experiments performed to date, providing the most quantitatively accurate predictions in the history of science. This remarkable success puts particle physics in an unusual situation. Should we still expect new particle physics discoveries or did we already learn everything we could? What would be the signals of potential new physics? Conversely, what would be the implications if there were no more discoveries? Does it still make sense to build bigger experiments? In general, when should we consider an experiment (for example the LHC) to be successful? I will first review the Standard Model, provide a glimpse of the Higgs boson and why it is was important to find it, and finally try to answer some of these fundamental questions that keep particle physicists up at night.