Sophie Williamson

I grew up just outside of London, England, and later moved to Brighton where I obtained my integrated Master in Physics (MPhys) from the University of Sussex in 2016. Although reluctant to leave such a wonderful place, I was fortunate enough to obtain funding from the Institut Lagrange de Paris to continue my academic endeavours, and in October of the same year I started my PhD at the Laboratoire de Physique Théorique et Hautes Energies based within the University of Pierre and Marie Curie. I am working within the Particle Physics and Cosmology group under the supervision of Dr. Mark Goodsell. My passion for beyond the standard model (BSM) physics was first captured during a placement I undertook during my undergraduate degree studying extra dimensions, and was continued through to my master’s thesis focussed on stabilising warped extra dimensions using scalar fields. Since starting at LPTHE I have been investigating different areas of BSM physics; from Higgs alignment and supersymmetry to unitarity constraints. With the parameter space for the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM) being gradually cut down by LHC searches, and increasingly accurate measurements of the Higgs boson mass and its couplings; my first thesis project was dedicated to exploring the possibility of low energy Higgs alignment coming from high energy origins. This project took an effective field theory approach, where the high energy model was given by the non-minimal supersymmetric Dirac Gaugino model, which supplements additional particles to the MSSM to allow extended supersymmetry in the Higgs/gauge sector. These additional fields give rise to relationships between the couplings that (at tree-level) satisfy the Higgs alignment condition, and give way to a natural and elegant BSM theory.

List of publications

Contact: swilliamson[at]lpthe.jussieu.fr