Research report 2003 - Max Planck Institute for Physics

Electroweak Symmetry Breaking and Precision Tests

Authors
Hollik, Wolfgang; Dittmaier, Stefan; Hahn, Thomas
Departments

Phänomenologie der Hochenergiephysik (Prof. Hollik) (Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Hollik)
MPI für Physik, München

Summary
One of the basic open questions of particle physics is the origin of mass. Experimentally and theoretically achieved insight into the structure of the fundamental building blocks of matter and their interactions are comprehensively summarized in the Standard Model of particle physics. In order to consistently merge the existence of massive particles with the basic symmetries of the Standard Model, a mechanism is needed for breaking the gauge symmetry of the electroweak interactions in a suitable way. In the Standard Model, this symmetry breaking is realized via the Higgs mechanism, which predicts the existence of an additional particle, the Higgs boson. Through quantum fluctuations, this as yet not directly detected particle influences observable quantities that can be measured precisely and hence allow an indirect determination of its features. Yet another symmetry, supersymmetry, unfies the description of matter and force particles within a common concept and predicts the existence of even more new particles, which also give rise to experimentally testable theoretical predictions in precision observables.

For the full text, see the German version.

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