TH Theoretical Seminar

Discreet Steps in the Landscape

by Bert Schellekens (NIKHEF)

Wednesday, 11 April 2012 from to (Europe/Zurich)
at CERN ( 4-3-006 - TH Theory Conference Room )
Description
About twenty-five years ago the first discreet steps were made in what fifteen years later became known as the "anthropic landscape of string theory", or the "discretuum". After a few remarks about the early history,  I will explain why these ideas are likely to affect the future of particle physics, and not just string theory. I will discuss how some recent results are already putting the string theory landscape under stress. Finally I will present some recent work on discrete scans of parts of the landscape with the aim of understanding the discrete structure of the standard model. The talk will be aimed at non-string-theorists.
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