ECKHARD VON TOERNE

Kansas State University


Searching for the Higgs Boson at the LHC.

November 6, 2006

4:30 p.m.

CW 102

 

Abstract: One of the most important questions in particle physics might be the origin of electroweak symmetry breaking, which is responsible for the short-range nature of weak nuclear forces. The Higgs boson arises as a result of spontaneous breaking of the underlying SU(2) symmetry leading to the generation of masses for fermions and weak bosons. While the mass of the Higgs boson itself cannot be predicted within the framework of our theory, direct searches and precision measurements of electroweak observables have limited the allowed Higgsboson masses to the range between 115 to ~300 GeV. This mass range will be explored by the Large Hadron Collider which is currently being constructed at CERN, Switzerland. I report on the preparations for the hunt on the Higgs boson, specificallly on the vectorboson fusion channel which is very promising for low-mass Higgs bosons.