Giovanna Cottin, associate researcher of the Millennium Institute SAPHIR and member of the Physics Institute of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, recently participated in the international workshop "Scalars 2025: Higgs Bosons and Cosmology", held at the University of Warsaw, Poland.
The activity, organized jointly by the Faculty of Physics of the University of Warsaw and the Division of Physics of Fundamental Interactions of the Polish Physical Society, brought together specialists from around the world to discuss the latest advances in Higgs Boson, scalar theories and cosmology. In this context, the researcher presented and discussed central issues in particle physics and their projections in the understanding of the early universe.
The meeting was held between September 22 and 25, 2025 and included 30-minute plenary lectures and 15-minute parallel sessions. The topics addressed included the presence of scalars in cosmology (dark matter, inflatons, axions, phase transitions), properties of the Higgs Boson, extensions of the scalar sector of the Standard Model, such as the multiplet models or the Georgi-Machacek model, effective field theory applied to Higgs physics, as well as experimental searches projected at large accelerators such as the LHC, FCC and ILC.
"I came to this workshop to discuss issues related to scalar particles and their connections with dark matter and inflation, which are topics in which I am beginning to investigate in greater depth with my students and researchers at SAPHIR. We are interested in these topics in connection with colliders", commented the academic, highlighting the importance of participating in this type of international events.
The researcher also valued the space for reunion and collaboration provided by the conference: "I was also able to meet some colleagues - such as Dr. Nicolás Bernal, Dr. Marcin Badziack (whom I had not seen since my PhD and one of the organizers of the workshop) and Dr. Rojalin Padhan (with whom I have an article, but I did not know her in person) - so it has been a nice networking opportunity. Poland is a country steeped in history and science, so it has been a very full experience."
More details on the event program can be found at the following link: Scalars 2025 - Scalars 2025: Higgs bosons and cosmology (22-September 25, 2025): Overview - Indico