Particle Group Meeting

There is evidence for a 130 GeV gamma-ray line at the Galactic Center in the Fermi Large Area Telescope data. Dark matter candidates that explain this feature should also annihilate to Standard Model particles, resulting in a continuous spectrum of photons. To study this continuum, we analyze the Fermi data down to 5 GeV, restricted to the inner 3 degrees of the Galaxy. We place a strong bound on the ratio of continuum photons to monochromatic line photons that is independent of uncertainties in the dark matter density profile. Neutralino dark matter is excluded by the derived constraints.

I will introduce models of dynamical electroweak symmetry breaking and their present and future impact on LHC physics. I will start by reviewing what LHC has seen and not seen and the main challenges of models of dynamical electroweak symmetry breaking. To overcome some of these problems we need a better understanding of strong dynamics. I will therefore review the state-of-the-art of the phase diagram of strongly coupled theories as function of the number of flavors, colors and matter representation. I will then show how these models can also lead to natural dark matter candidates able to provide a simple resolution to current experimental observations. If times allows, I will introduce new successful models of inflation in which the inflaton emerges as a composite state from a natural four-dimensional strongly coupled theory coupled to gravity.