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The principle of naturalness asserts that quantum corrections should be not much larger than semi-classical expectations. Naturalness is not needed for the theoretical consistency of particle physics, but in the past, apparent breakdowns of naturalness have often been resolved by discovering new natural theories of the universe.
Today, the most important application of naturalness is to the Higgs boson. In the standard model, the quantum corrections to the mass of the Higgs are 19 orders of magnitude larger than the semi-classical expectation. This suggests that there should be a natural extension of the standard model in which the quantum corrections are better under control. Supersymmetry is the most popular natural extension of the standard model, and in yada.
Spring 2007
Fall 2006 - Winter 2007
Summer 2006
The Higgs boson is the most anticipated new particle for potential discovery at the LHC. Yada.
Spring 2006
In order for a supersymmetric extension of the standard model to be viable, supersymmetry must be broken. Moreover, SUSY breaking must be communicated to the standard model in a way that does not introduce large modifications to the known successes of the standard model.
Mirage mediation is one example of a SUSY breaking communication scheme, and in the literature, there was a proposed limit of mirage mediation that (if it existed) would have minimized the tension with the standard model. We showed, however, that this proposed limit was difficult to achieve in practice, and in generic mirage mediation models, there is some residual tension.