Two midday breaking news items:<\/p>\n
One significance of this is that while the SM prediction for the electron EDM is unobservably small, generically extensions of the SM predict much larger values. Already the 2014 bound was in conflict with typical SUSY models with LHC-scale supersymmetry, and was starting to rule out parts of the ranges expected for split-SUSY models (Arkani-Hamed’s current “best bet”) as well as the expected range for SO(10) GUTs (see for instance slide 25 here<\/a>).<\/p>\n Today’s result pretty much completely rules out generic versions for both the most popular SUSY models still standing (Split SUSY), as well as the most popular class of GUTs. This provides another nail in the coffin of the SUSY-GUT paradigm which has dominated expectations for physics beyond the SM over the past forty years.\n<\/li>\n The $3 million mathematics prize goes to Vincent Lafforgue, for his work on the Langlands correspondence. The prize description has some information about him I was unaware of:<\/p>\n Deeply concerned about the ecological crisis, Lafforgue is now focused on operator algebras in quantum mechanics and devising new materials for clean energy technologies. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Update<\/strong>: The promotional videos for the Breakthrough Prize winners that will be shown at the November ceremony are already available on Youtube<\/a>.<\/p>\n Update<\/strong>: Those phenomenologists work fast! A detailed study of the implications of the ACME result for SUSY models is on the arXiv tonight<\/a>. For a precise version of the crude claim that “generic split SUSY is now ruled out”, look at the top two plots in figure 4.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Two midday breaking news items: The ACME II experiment is reporting today a new, nearly order of magnitude better, limit on the electric dipole moment of the electron: $$|d_e|\\leq 1.1 \\times 10^{-29} e\\ cm$$ The previous best bound was from … Continue reading