Pursuing the origin of electroweak symmetry breaking: a 'Bayesian Physics' argument for a 600 GeV e+e- collider

摘要

High-energy data has been accumulating over the last ten years, and it shouldnot be ignored when making decisions about the future experimental program. Inparticular, we argue that the electroweak data collected at LEP, SLC andTevatron indicate a light scalar particle with mass less than 500 GeV. Thisresult is based on considering a wide variety of theories including theStandard Model, supersymmetry, large extra dimensions, and composite models. Weargue that a high luminosity, 600 GeV e+e- collider would then be the naturalchoice to feel confident about finding and studying states connected toelectroweak symmetry breaking. We also argue from the data that worrying aboutresonances at multi-TeV energies as the only signal for electroweak symmetrybreaking is not as important a discovery issue for the next generation ofcolliders. Such concerns should perhaps be replaced with more relevantdiscovery issues such as a Higgs boson that decays invisibly, and ``newphysics'' that could conspire with a heavier Higgs boson to accommodateprecision electroweak data. An e+e- collider with energy less than about 600GeV is ideally suited to cover these possibilities.