Tao Han, Biswarup
Mukhopadhyaya, Kai Wang & Zongguo Si talk with
ScienceWatch.com and answer a few questions about
this month's Fast Moving Front in the field of
Physics.
The authors have also sent along images of their
work.
Article: Pair production of doubly charged scalars:
Neutrino mass constraints and signals at the CERN
LHC
Authors: Han,
T;Mukhopadhyaya, B;Si, ZG;Wang, K
Journal: PHYS REV D, 76 (7): art. no.-075013 OCT 2007
Addresses: Univ Wisconsin, Dept Phys, 1150 Univ Ave,
Madison, WI 53706 USA.
Univ Wisconsin, Dept Phys, Madison, WI 53706 USA.
Harish Chandra Res Inst, Allahabad 211019, Uttar Pradesh,
India.
Shandong Univ, Dept Phys, Jinan 250100, Peoples R
China.
Tsing Hua Univ, High Energy Phys Ctr, Beijing 100084,
Peoples R China.
Why do you think your paper is highly
cited?
Coauthor
Biswarup
Mukhopadhyaya
Coauthor
Kai Wang
Coauthor
Zongguo Si
It is because of the relevance of the work in connection to two quite
important developments in the field of high energy physics, namely, the
recent discovery of neutrino masses and the upcoming frontier experiments
at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) near Geneva, Switzerland.
Does it describe a new discovery, methodology, or
synthesis of knowledge?
Based on these recent discoveries with neutrinos, the work predicts
potential discoveries, in the near future, from experiments conducted at
the LHC.
Would you summarize the significance of your paper
in layman's terms?
The paper proposed a unique and clean signal to directly test a neutrino
mass generation mechanism at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The tiny
mass of neutrinos possesses a deep puzzle regarding their origin. If the
mass generation is due to one type of theory, called the "type-II seesaw
mechanism," we then have the potential to test it and thus understand this
mass generation during upcoming LHC experiments. This would revolutionize
our understanding of mass generation for elementary particles.
How did you become involved in this research and
were any particular problems encountered along the way?
As many researchers do, we have been contemplating on the connections
between the observed neutrino mass and the LHC experiments. This work is
only one of our series papers on the related topics (see further related
works,
[see also]).
Where do you see your research leading in the
future?
This idea has led to several follow-up publications of ours, as well as
many by others. The ultimately important outcome is to put forth the idea
to test experimentally at the LHC. If confirmed, it would open a new window
for a mass generation mechanism.
Do you foresee any social or political implications
for your research?
We think that the implications would be mainly scientific. It is the
experimental confirmation or falsification which will finally determine the
impact of this research in the field of high energy physics and for science
over all.
Prof. Tao Han
Institute Co-Director
Department of Physics
University of Wisconsin
Madison, WI Web
Prof. Biswarup Mukhopadhyaya
Head of High Energy Theory Group
Harish-Chandra Research Institute
Allahabad, INDIA
Dr. Kai Wang
IPMU, University of Tokyo,
Kashiwa, Chiba, Japan Web
Prof. Zongguo Si
Department of Physics
Shandong University
Jinan, Shandong
P.R. China Web