Chapter 8
Beyond the Standard Model
Eliezer Rabinovici
8.1 Introduction
Starting sometime in 2008/2009 one expects to be able to take a glimpse at physics
at the TeV scale. This will be done through the Large Hadronic Collider (LHC) at
CERN, Geneva. It will be a result of an unprecedented coordinated international
scientific effort. This chapter is written in 2007. It is essentially inviting disaster
to spell out in full detail what the current various theoretical speculations on the
physics are, as well motivated as they may seem at this time. What I find of more
value is to elaborate on some of the ideas and the motivations behind them. Some
may stay with us, some may evolve and some may be discarded as the results of
the experiments unfold. When the proton antiproton collider was turned on in the
early eighties of the last century at Cern the theoretical ideas were ready to face
the experimental results in confidence, a confidence which actually had prevailed.
The emphasis was on the tremendous experimental challenges that needed to be
overcome in both the production and the detection of the new particles. As far as
theory was concerned this was about the physics of the standard model and not about
the physics beyond it. The latter part was left safely unchallenged. That situation
started changing when the large electron positron (LEP) collider experiments also at
Cern were turned on as well the experiments at the Tevatron at Fermilab. Today it is
with rather little, scientifically based, theoretical confidence that one is anticipating
the outcome of the experiments. It is less the method and foundations that are tested
and more the prejudices. It is these which are at the center of this chapter. Some
claim to detect over the years an oscilatory behavior in the amount of conservatism
expressed by leaders in physics. The generation in whose life time relativity and
E. Rabinovici ()
Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
e-mail: eliezer@vms.huji.ac.il
© The Author(s) 2020
H. Schopper (ed.), Particle Physics Reference Library,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38207-0_8
455
Beyond the Standard Model
Eliezer Rabinovici
8.1 Introduction
Starting sometime in 2008/2009 one expects to be able to take a glimpse at physics
at the TeV scale. This will be done through the Large Hadronic Collider (LHC) at
CERN, Geneva. It will be a result of an unprecedented coordinated international
scientific effort. This chapter is written in 2007. It is essentially inviting disaster
to spell out in full detail what the current various theoretical speculations on the
physics are, as well motivated as they may seem at this time. What I find of more
value is to elaborate on some of the ideas and the motivations behind them. Some
may stay with us, some may evolve and some may be discarded as the results of
the experiments unfold. When the proton antiproton collider was turned on in the
early eighties of the last century at Cern the theoretical ideas were ready to face
the experimental results in confidence, a confidence which actually had prevailed.
The emphasis was on the tremendous experimental challenges that needed to be
overcome in both the production and the detection of the new particles. As far as
theory was concerned this was about the physics of the standard model and not about
the physics beyond it. The latter part was left safely unchallenged. That situation
started changing when the large electron positron (LEP) collider experiments also at
Cern were turned on as well the experiments at the Tevatron at Fermilab. Today it is
with rather little, scientifically based, theoretical confidence that one is anticipating
the outcome of the experiments. It is less the method and foundations that are tested
and more the prejudices. It is these which are at the center of this chapter. Some
claim to detect over the years an oscilatory behavior in the amount of conservatism
expressed by leaders in physics. The generation in whose life time relativity and
E. Rabinovici ()
Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
e-mail: eliezer@vms.huji.ac.il
© The Author(s) 2020
H. Schopper (ed.), Particle Physics Reference Library,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38207-0_8
455