Electroweak symmetry breaking via QCD.

We propose a new mechanism to generate the electroweak scale within the framework of QCD, which is extended to include conformally invariant scalar degrees of freedom belonging to a larger irreducible representation of SU(3)c. The electroweak symmetry breaking is triggered dynamically via the Higgs portal by the condensation of the colored scalar field around 1 TeV. The mass of the colored boson is restricted to be 350 GeV≲mS≲3 TeV, with the upper bound obtained from perturbative renormalization group evolution. This implies that the colored boson can be produced at the LHC. If the colored boson is electrically charged, the branching fraction of the Higgs boson decaying into two photons can slightly increase, and moreover, it can be produced at future linear colliders. Our idea of nonperturbative electroweak scale generation can serve as a new starting point for more realistic model building in solving the hierarchy problem.

Monte Carlo simulation of background components in low level Germanium spectrometry.

This proceeding presents the decomposition of the background spectra of the four screening detectors GeMPI 1 - 4 at the Gran Sasso Underground Laboratory (LNGS) using Monte Carlo simulations in the Geant4-based framework MaGe. A detailed understanding of the composition of the background spectra was achieved, allowing for the proposal of two new shield designs for future GeMPI-like detectors and enabling a reduction of the integrated background count rate to 15 counts/d/kg in the interval [40, 2700] keV.

The waning of the WIMP? A review of models, searches, and constraints.

Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) are among the best-motivated dark matter candidates. No conclusive signal, despite an extensive search program that combines, often in a complementary way, direct, indirect, and collider probes, has been detected so far. This situation might change in near future due to the advent of one/multi-TON Direct Detection experiments. We thus, find it timely to provide a review of the WIMP paradigm with focus on a few models which can be probed at best by these facilities. Collider and Indirect Detection, nevertheless, will not be neglected when they represent a complementary probe.

Seesaw neutrino masses with large mixings from dimensional deconstruction.

We demonstrate a dynamical origin for the dimension-five seesaw operator in dimensional deconstruction models. Light neutrino masses arise from the seesaw scale which corresponds to the inverse lattice spacing. It is shown that the deconstructing limit naturally prefers maximal leptonic mixing. Higher-order corrections which are allowed by gauge invariance can transform the bimaximal into a bilarge mixing. These terms may appear to be nonrenormalizable at scales smaller than the deconstruction scale.