Charting the path to new physics in the precision era

by Benjamin Stefanek (Valencia)

Wednesday 25 Feb 2026, 12:30 → 14:30 America/Los_Angeles

48/2-224 - Madrone (SLAC)

Abstract: The next 20 years of particle experiments will focus on intensity frontier measurements at high- and low-energy machines. The key interpretation framework for this era of precision BSM physics is effective field theory (EFT) which, while very general, introduces more parameters than independent observables. I revisit the BSM flavor puzzle and show how its resolution in terms of approximate flavor symmetries allows us to map this large parameter space and identify the subsets that may be populated by new physics at the TeV scale. I then discuss how Higgs, electroweak (EW), and flavor measurements over the next decades will have excellent coverage of this space. In particular, a new run on the Z-pole producing more than 1 trillion Z bosons (Tera-Z) as proposed at FCC-ee will have broad sensitivity to heavy new physics up to the tens of TeV scale via loop contributions to EW precision observables. I show this via an EFT analysis and in the context of classic solutions to the EW hierarchy problem such as SUSY and composite Higgs models. Finally, I discuss future work and new, promising directions for the HL-LHC phase.

Zoom link: https://stanford.zoom.us/j/763419698?pwd=VTFjVzNheFhzY1NZVjR4OE1TRFBnZz09

stefanek_SLAC_slides_final.pdf

video2934614614.mp4