Scalars on the Lattice: Targeting the Conformal Window

Speaker: Evan Weinberg

When: May 1, 2014 (Thu), 01:00PM to 02:00PM (add to my calendar)
Location: PRB 595

This event is part of the Preliminary Oral Exam.

Examining Committee: Claudio Rebbi, Richard Brower, Tulika Bose, Claudio Chamon

Abstract: The LHC has discovered a relatively light scalar particle which we interpret as a Higgs boson. Recent results by the LatKMI collaboration may lead to the conclusion that a light scalar could arise as a composite from an SU(3) gauge theory with eight fundamental fermions, possibly lying close to the conformal window. Here we present a novel idea to study the transition from conformal to confining behavior using an SU(3) gauge theory with four light and eight heavy flavors. We show preliminary results which demonstrate the ability to interpolate between the 12 flavor conformal and 4 flavor chirally broken system by varying the mass of the eight heavy flavors. First results on the determination of the isosinglet 0++ state are presented.

Evan