PhD Project Ideas on Beyond Standard Model Physics

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around seeking ideas for PhD projects in Beyond Standard Model (BSM) physics. Participants explore various subfields and the importance of aligning research topics with the expertise of potential supervisors, while also addressing the challenges faced by a new PhD student in identifying suitable research questions.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Debate/contested
  • Conceptual clarification

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants suggest narrowing down interests to specific areas within BSM physics, such as strings, loops, phenomenology, or cosmology.
  • One participant expresses a preference for cosmological applications of BSM, while ruling out string theory and quantum gravity due to the supervisor's expertise.
  • There is a discussion about the supervisor's background in theoretical physics and phenomenology, with references to previous PhD topics supervised by him.
  • Some participants recommend selecting topics closely related to the supervisor's interests to ensure guidance and support.
  • Concerns are raised about the role of a supervisor in helping students identify research questions, with some arguing that students should develop this skill independently.
  • Others counter that asking for topic suggestions is a valid part of the PhD process, especially for new students.
  • One participant shares an anecdote about a famous physicist's approach to guiding students in selecting research topics.
  • Another participant introduces the topic of massive gravity as a potential area of interest that intersects with high energy physics and cosmology.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

The discussion reflects a lack of consensus on the best approach for selecting a PhD topic. While some participants emphasize the importance of independence in research, others advocate for the necessity of supervisor guidance in topic selection.

Contextual Notes

Participants express varying opinions on the responsibilities of supervisors and the expectations placed on PhD students, highlighting the complexities of navigating academic mentorship and research direction.

  • #31
Aziz Bhatti said:
As the masses of Fermions cannot be predicted with in standard model, you might find Fermions mass problem in particular neutrino mass generation mechanism, as neutrino can be thought of as dark matter candidate and also has important role in inflation etc. It might also help you to work in cosmology later on...
Thanks Abdul Aziz, Fermion masses problem seems really interesting. I also went through your nice PhD thesis about this problem in GUT’s. But I’m not sure about your idea of connecting Neutrino masses to cosmology brother… Do you mean one can find a cosmological mechanism during inflation or due to DM, to determine neutrino mass?
 
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  • #32
I have a question about the paper that haushofer mentioned. In the paper, the author states that

Moving on to helicity 2, the required gauge symmetry is linearized general coordinate invariance. Asking for consistent self interactions leads essentially uniquely to GR and full general coordinate invariance .

I am not sure what this means. If we quantize GR, I know of course that we end up with a massless spin 2 graviton. Here, we treat the metric as a quantum field so it is clear that general covariance leads to a gauge symmetry in the quantum theory we obtain. But let's say with start with quantizing a spin 2 classical field in a flat spacetime. We may have a gauge symmetry which priori has nothing to do with spacetime coordinate transformation and general covariance. Is the author saying that consistency of a massless spin 2 theory automatically leads to a condition on the spacetime it evolves through? Even if initially the spin 2 particle has nothing to do with a metric? Or am I completely missing the point?
Thanks in advance.
 
  • #33

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