Moriond 2012: Conclusions from QCD week

On the final day of Quantum Chromodynamics week at Moriond, speakers emphasized the possibility of new physics with the LHC at 4TeV

The last day of the Moriond QCD 2012 conference in La Thuile was 17 March. Closing the week with an overview of the conference were Günther Dissertori from ETH Zurich, who gave the experimental summary talk, and Davison Soper from the University of Oregon, who reviewed the theoretical topics covered during the week.

“As the summary speakers, we were faced with the challenge of condensing, into two 45 minute presentations, the enormous amount of information presented by no less than 93 speakers during what was a highly interesting conference,” said Günther Dissertori.

In his talk, Dissertori pointed out the beautiful interplay between direct searches for new particles and indirect constraints coming from heavy flavour precision measurements. “Together, they really start to reduce strongly the parameter space still allowed for certain supersymmetric models,” said Dissertori. “Also bringing in the current constraints from the Higgs searches gives even further substance to this picture of cornering possible new physics beyond the Standard Model, accessible at the LHC energies.”

Both speakers emphasized that while deviations in the mass range ~120-130 GeV in Higgs searches presented by ATLAS, CMS and Tevatron might be called "tantalizing", the statistics available are not yet enough to allow too strong a conclusion. The upcoming 8 TeV run at the LHC will help to shed light on this issue.

Dissertori concluded his talk with a photo of a puzzle representing our current picture of physics up to the TeV scale. He stated that very soon we should know if there is room for a piece in the puzzle called New Physics. Soper finished with a quote from Corinthians 13: "For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know...." (King James Bible). He said that for the Higgs boson and possible extensions of the Standard Model, the glass may be not so dark for Moriond 2013.

Finally, both speakers thanked and congratulated the conference organizers for a fantastic event.