Title: Cosmology as a Probe of Physics Beyond the Standard Model in 2014

Speaker:Kuver Sinha (Syracuse Univ.)

Abstract: Cosmological observations provide clear evidence that the Universe is made up mainly of dark matter and dark energy, neither of which have an explanation within the Standard Model of particle physics. Moreover, inflation, our best theory for primordial structure formation and the vastness of the universe, remains elusive from the point of view of a microscopic theory. Combined with the mysterious hierarchical distance between the Electroweak scale and the Planck scale, and the question of understanding the Higgs mass, it is clear that the cosmic and energy frontiers are both crying out for new physics. Will Nature be kind enough to make new physics accessible to our experiments? I will talk about my latest research, located at the confluence of these areas, and address some of these fundamental questions in the light of new experimental anomalies seen in both frontiers this year.