Eur. Phys. J. Plus (2015) 130: 209
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/i2015-15209-y

Regular Article

Flavour, electroweak symmetry breaking and dark matter: state of the art and future prospects

¹ Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Complesso Universitario di Monte Sant’Angelo, Via Cintia, I-80126, Napoli, Italy
² Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Napoli, Complesso Universitario di Monte Sant’Angelo, Via Cintia, I-80126, Napoli, Italy
³ Université de Lyon, Université Lyon 1, F-69622, Villeurbanne Cedex, France
⁴ Centre de Recherche Astrophysique de Lyon, CNRS, UMR 5574, F-69561, Saint-Genis Laval Cedex, France
⁵ Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Lyon, France
⁶ Physics Department, CERN Theory Division, CH-1211, Geneva 23, Switzerland
⁷ IFAE, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193, Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain
⁸ Institute for Theoretical Physics, ETH Zurich, 8093, Zurich, Switzerland
⁹ Physics Department, Indiana University, 47405, Bloomington, IN, USA
¹⁰ Theoretische Physik 1, Naturwissenschaftlich-Technische Fakultät, Universität Siegen, D-57068, Siegen, Germany
¹¹ PRISMA Cluster of Excellence and Institute for Physics (THEP), Johannes Gutenberg University, D-55099, Mainz, Germany
¹² Laboratory for Elementary-Particle Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., USA
¹³ Department of Physics and Technology, University of Bergen, PO Box 7803, 5020, Bergen, Norway
¹⁴ Dipartimento di Fisica ed Astronomia G.Galilei, Università degli Studi di Padova, Sezione di Padova, Via Marzolo 8, 35131, Padova, Italy
¹⁵ Sezione di Padova, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Via Marzolo 8, 35131, Padova, Italy
¹⁶ Department of Physics, University of California Santa Cruz, California, USA
¹⁷ Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics, University of California Santa Cruz, California, USA
¹⁸ Department of Physics and Technology, University of Bergen, PO Box 7803, 5020, Bergen, Norway

^* e-mail: giulia.ricciardi@na.infn.it

Received: 21 July 2015
Accepted: 14 September 2015
Published online: 21 October 2015

Abstract

With the discovery of the Higgs boson the Standard Model has become a complete and comprehensive theory, which has been verified with unparalleled precision and in principle might be valid at all scales. However, several reasons remain why we firmly believe that there should be physics beyond the Standard Model. Experiments such as the LHC, new B factories, and earth- and space-based astro-particle experiments provide us with unique opportunities to discover a coherent framework for many of the long-standing puzzles of our field. Here we explore several significant interconnections between the physics of the Higgs boson, the physics of flavour, and the experimental clues we have about dark matter.