Physics at the LHC - 2009/2010

Slides from lectures:

Programme
This is a monographic course focused on the discussion of the role the experiments at the LHC can play in further development of the physics of elementary interactions and cosmology. The expectations linked to the experiments at the LHC are closely connected with the existing theory of elementary interactions called the Standard Model. We hope to get experimental hints for generalising the Standard Model so that we better understand the origin of the Fermi scale and get the explanation of the empirical facts that remain unexplained in the framework of the Standard Model (the existence of dark matter and the absence of antimatter in the universe). The main purpose of the course is to present those aspects of the Standard Model that most likely are important for searching for its extension. Furthermore, there will be discussed various theoretical scenarios for beyond the Standard Model theory both from the point of view of their theoretical value and the chances for their verification at the LHC.

  1. The beauty of the Standard Model as a renormalizable quantum field theory (the basic structure, local and global symmetries and their experimental verification, fermion masses, GIM mechanism)
  2. The Standard Model as an effective theory - limits on new physical scales
  3. The Higgs mechanism and its possible realizations; the Higgs mechanism and a Higgs particle(s)
  4. Vacuum stability and Landau pole in the one Higgs doublet theory
  5. Unitarity of the longitudinal gauge boson scattering amplitudes and its consequences for possible extensions of the Standard Model
  6. Hierachy problem
  7. Arguments in favour of grand unification
  8. Dark matter in extensions of the Standard Model

Bibliography
The course will be based on original research publications.
Some textbooks with introduction to the Standard Model:
1. I.J.R. Aitchison i A.J.G. Hey, Gauge theories in particie physics
2. S. Pokorski, Gauge Field Theories
3. P.D.B. Collins, A.D.Martin i E.J.Squires, Particle Physics and Cosmology
4. P. Ramond, Journeys beyond the Standard Model

S. Pokorski