Discovering technicolor

In the Standard Model, the Higgs boson was introduced to explain how particles acquired mass and the symmetry between weak nuclear and electromagnetic forces was spontaneously broken. Its presence raises serious potential problems at high energy (the hierarchy problem).

EU-funded scientists analysed an alternative solution that demands a composite Higgs particle via a new force, the Technicolor force. One of the ideas to address the hierarchy problem posed by the Higgs particle was explored. This idea involves a new strong interaction at high energy the Technicolor interaction modelled as an SU(N) gauge theory with techniquarks. In this theoretical framework, the origin of electroweak symmetry breaking can be explained dynamically without the introduction of a fundamental Higgs boson. The Higgs boson is instead a bound state of the techniquarks. The simplest model of technicolor is a scale-up of quantum chromodynamics (QCD).

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Discovering technicolor