From the discovery of the W and Z bosons in 1983 to the most recent measurements taken at the Tevatron, the Standard Model of particle physics has survived two decades of precision tests. But starting in 2008, particle physicists will probe new phenomena at the high energy frontier with the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a proton-proton accelerator being built along the French-Swiss border. I study both the theoretical frameworks and possible LHC signatures for physics beyond the standard model, hoping to gain insight into the origin of mass, the weakness of gravity, and the symmetry structure of our universe. I am also involved in making precise LHC predictions for the Standard Model alone, in order to understand the degree to which rare Standard Model processes can mask novel LHC signatures.

• Miller Fellow Focus Article

There is every indication that the next decade will also see great progress in fundamental physics. 2008 will be the year of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), when the most powerful particle accelerator ever built starts to collect data at an energy around 1 TeV. By Einstein’s famed equation E = mc², this corresponds to a mass one million times heavier than an electron, an experimental tour de force that will expand our reach into the energy frontier. Moreover, the Standard Model of particle physics — which represents the combined experimental and theoretical knowledge of the past 100 years — ceases to make substantive predictions at energies in excess of 1 TeV, so we are guaranteed to see new phenomena at the LHC.

Still, there are reasons to believe that LHC physics will be particularly difficult to decipher. Historically, small anomalies in experimental data have pointed the way to new theories, but ever since the W and Z bosons were discovered in 1983, precision tests of the Standard Model have shown no statistically significant deviations. Indeed, the absence of anomalies has ruled out broad classes of elegant TeV scale proposals, and while new models have been put forth in the past ten years that do evade current experimental limits, no one model is any more compelling than another.

If the only problem were that no front-runner has emerged among the many LHC models, we would simply wait for the LHC to turn on and verify the correct extension of the Standard Model. However, we have learned that models which come from completely different theoretical starting points and which are in principle distinguishable at future colliders often yield very similar signatures at the LHC. We have also learned that standard analysis techniques are often insufficient for new physics discoveries, either because specialized variables are needed to establish a signal or because the signal is contaminated by ordinary Standard Model backgrounds.

Therefore, in the theoretical particle physics community, we are faced with three tasks before the first round of LHC data is released. First, we must explore as many scenarios for TeV scale physics as possible, with particular emphasis on models that require novel analysis strategies and on models whose LHC signatures mimic other well-established models. Second, we need to develop coherent strategies for how to correctly interpret LHC data in terms of TeV scale physics models. Third, we need to refine our methods for predicting the rates for rare Standard Model processes at the LHC, in order to be confident that any apparent new physics signals are indeed real.

Jesse Thaler: My current focus is the upcoming Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiment at CERN. In my research, I analyze the theoretical frameworks and possible LHC signatures for physics beyond the standard model, hoping to gain insight into the origin of mass, the nature of dark matter, the apparent weakness of gravity, and the symmetry structure of our universe. In addition, I work on methods to improve LHC data analysis, including jet reconstruction and standard model background estimation.

Starting in 2009, particle physicists will probe new phenomena at the high energy frontier with the Large Hadron Collider. I study the phenomenology of physics beyond the standard model, methods for standard model background estimation, and novel LHC analysis techniques.

Professor Thaler is a theoretical particle physicist whose research focus is the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiment at CERN. The LHC is pushing the frontiers of scientific knowledge through high-energy particle collisions. His research is aimed at finding new ways to use LHC data to address outstanding questions in fundamental physics, including the nature of dark matter, the apparent weakness of gravity, and the symmetry structure of our universe. He analyzes the theoretical frameworks and possible LHC signatures for physics beyond the standard model. He is particularly interested in novel experimental signatures for supersymmetry and how the properties of dark matter might be tested at the LHC. In addition, he works on new methods to characterize jets—collimated sprays of particles that are copiously produced at the LHC—and has developed a number of techniques to exploit the substructure of jets to enhance the search for new physics.

Theoretical Particle Physics, Large Hadron Collider, Physics Beyond the Standard Model

Jesse Thaler is a theoretical particle physicist whose current research focus is the upcoming Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiment at CERN. The LHC will explore physics beyond the standard model, addressing a number of outstanding questions in fundamental physics, including the origin of mass, the nature of dark matter, the apparent weakness of gravity, and the symmetry structure of our universe. In his research, Prof. Thaler aims to maximize the discovery potential of the LHC, by proposing new theoretical frameworks and studying their LHC implications. Prof. Thaler joined the MIT Physics Department in 2010 and is currently a member of the Center for Theoretical Physics at MIT. From 2006 to 2009, he was a fellow at the Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science at the University of California, Berkeley. He received his Ph.D. in Physics from Harvard University in 2006, and his Sc.B. in Math/Physics from Brown University in 2002.

I am a theoretical particle physicist and my research focus is the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiment at CERN. The LHC is pushing the frontiers of scientific knowledge through high energy particle collisions. My research is aimed at finding new ways to use LHC data to address outstanding questions in fundamental physics, including the origin of mass, the nature of dark matter, the apparent weakness of gravity, and the symmetry structure of our universe.

Jesse Thaler is an Assistant Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Dr. Thaler joined the MIT faculty in 2010 as a member of the Center for Theoretical Physics. From 2006 to 2009, he was a fellow at the Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science at the University of California, Berkeley. He received his Ph.D. in Physics from Harvard University in 2006, and his Sc.B. in Math/Physics from Brown University in 2002.

Dr. Thaler's research is in theoretical particle physics, with a particular focus on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiment at CERN. The LHC is pushing the frontiers of scientific knowledge through high energy particle collisions. Dr. Thaler's research is aimed at finding new ways to use LHC data to address outstanding questions in fundamental physics, including the origin of mass, the nature of dark matter, the apparent weakness of gravity, and the symmetry structure of our universe.

In his research, Dr. Thaler analyzes the theoretical frameworks and possible LHC signatures for physics beyond the standard model. He is particularly interested in how the properties of dark matter might be tested at the LHC, and has proposed a scenario in which LHC measurements of dark matter would also provide insight into the structure of space-time. In addition, he works on methods to improve LHC data analysis, including new ways to measure and characterize jets, collimated sprays of particles that are copiously produced at the LHC. Dr. Thaler has authored over 45 papers on these and related topics, and he received an Early Career Research Award from the Department of Energy in 2011.