Event Details

Why hasn't the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) discovered anything beyond the Higgs boson?  Because you're thinking about particle physics in the wrong way. The LHC switched on in 2015 at 13 TeV, the highest energy ever used in a collider experiment and the beginning of a decades-long research program. Our first extensive look at this new data, in 2021, reveals impressive agreement with Standard Model expectations and thus far no new particles. So where do we go from here? Excitingly, the field is undergoing a shift in mindset toward previously less-emphasized searches for things like long-lived particles (LLPs) and other highly atypical objects, as well as carefully preparing for higher-energy colliders that will succeed the LHC. I will report on some of the non-standard and LLP searches I've pursued at the LHC so far and discuss ideas for the near future and the HL-LHC. I'll describe our current efforts to facilitate novel collaboration between experimentalists and theorists with the LLP Community initiative. I'll discuss big collider projects on the horizon, including speculative next-to-next generation machines that could be built in exotic locations. Finally, I'll place particle physics in a larger context and briefly examine how new ways of framing and discussing high-energy physics with non-specialists can greatly affect the broader impacts of the work, with significant implications for society.