Searches for new physics
One of the biggest unresolved questions in physics is why there is a hierarchy of many orders of magnitude between the strength of the forces described by the Standard Model (electroweak and strong) and the gravitational force. A unified description of all forces in a common theory must explain this hierarchy. The data that will be provided to the CMS experiment by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in the following years may finally shed light on this question. Popular new physics scenarios providing an explanation to this question are extra spacial dimensions or a composite Higgs boson, exhibiting a fundamental common signature at the LHC: resonant deformations of the invariant mass spectra for pair production of highly boosted W, Z and Higgs bosons. In case no such scenario applies, the break down of the electroweak theory at high energies equally leads to deformations (but non-resonant in this case) of these mass spectra. Their measurement for the first time at the TeV-scale is thus of highest importance and is approached as the core goal of this group.