Title: The Past, Present, and Future of Particle Discovery
Abstract: With the completion of the Standard Model (SM), Particle Physics stands at a crucial point, where a successful theory framework is faced with a collection of mysteries, contradictions, and unexplained curiosities. Physics at today’s high energy particle collider, the Large Hadron Collider, is a mixture of testing every prediction of the SM and directly searching for signatures that would require a rewrite of our textbooks and symmetries. This talk will describe the broad motivation for my research program today with a focus on unconventional collider signatures, machine learning, and the technical challenges for a future muon collider – a program designed to address both the questions the SM doesn’t answer, and those it doesn’t even ask.