Dilaton Dynamics - from Theory to Applications

The dilaton is a hypothetical particle that emerges in the long-distance description of dynamical theories in which approximate scale invariance is spontaneously broken. Can this statement be made more precise? The classification of theories that give rise to such a particle is an ongoing challenge, for which new tools, both analytical and numerical, have become available only in recent years. In a parallel development, the exploration of the phenomenological signatures of such a particle has advanced significantly during the past ten years, thanks to the progress achieved in the study of the effective field theory description of the dilaton. This workshop will bring together world experts on the subject, to share knowledge, propose new ideas, and discuss common goals for future research on the dilaton, connecting and integrating ongoing formal, numerical, phenomenological and experimental work. Explanation of the workshop's importance, timeliness and relevance to the activities of the Centre: Evidence for the dilaton exists: in the minimal version of the Standard Model of particle physics, the electroweak theory gives rise to a special type of dilaton: the Higgs boson itself. Over ten years after discovery, the fundamental origin and nature of the Higgs boson is still a mystery, and a number of possible extensions of the Standard Model have been proposed in the literature, in which the physics of the dilaton plays an equally central, though different role. Given the many recent advances in analytical, numerical, and effective field theory techniques, and in view of future high precision runs of the LHC programme at CERN, it is timely to bring together the international community from different disciplines (hep-ph, hep-th and hep-lat) who encounter the dilaton to share their insights and discoveries.

Members of the Higgs Centre's theory group are actively engaged in dilaton research, and also universities across the UK play a leading role in this field, in collaboration with institutions in Europe, North America and Asia. This meeting will also provide the opportunity to form a working group that will draft a white paper outlining aims and objectives for dilaton physics.

This workshop has received support from the IPPP

Registration is now open. Please select 'Registration' button bottom right.

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