Summer School on High Energy Physics

Summer School on High Energy Physics

Course

Course Overview

The course starts addressing the main aspects of Quantum Field Theory, going from its formulation to later developments such as the introduction of Feynman diagrams and the renormalization theory. We give a historical overview of the High Energy Physics stressing the main theoretical and experimental achievements during the last century. We present the Standard Model, first going through accessory concepts such as treatment of symmetries, gauge theories, spontaneous symmetry breaking and the Higgs mechanism. Once the fundamental model of weak and electromagnetic interactions has been formulated, we will approach the main experiments that have corroborated the Standard Model as an excellent description of the world of elementary particles including the discovery of the Higgs boson. Finally, we introduce the gauge theory for the strong interaction exploring some of the main features.

Course Program

Elements of Field Theory

Brief Historical Account of QFT, Lagrangian Approach to Quantum Field Theory, Propagators and Virtual Particles, Interacting Fields, Field Quantization, General Features of Quantum Field Theory, The Best Theory We Have

Symmetries

Elements of Group Theory, Symmetry and Conservation Laws, Discrete Symmetries, Internal Symmetries

A Century of Particle Physics

An Historical Perspective of Particles and their Interactions

Standard Model

The Gauge Principle, Spontaneously Broken Symmetries, The Higgs Mechanism, Construction of the Model for Leptons, Introduction of the Quarks, Radiative Corrections, Experimental Tests: The Z-boson Physics, Neutrino Physics