Course description
The Standard Model is a relativistic quantum field theory that summarizes all we know today about the interactions of fundamental quantum fields. The quantized excitations of the fields manifest themselves as particles. The Standard Model is a gauge theory that describes interactions which are mediated by gauge boson fields or by the Higgs field. The electromagnetic gauge interactions are mediated by photons, the weak interactions by W- and Z-bosons, and the strong interactions (QCD) by gluons. Fermionic matter fields include lepton and quark fields. Quarks participate in all gauge interactions, while leptons participate only in the elctroweak gauge interaction. The Higgs field gives rise to spontaneous symmetry breaking, which gives mass to most other fields.
The Standard Model will be constructed step by step, starting from the Higgs sector, then adding gauge fields, and finally adding fermionic matter fields. Along the way we address spontaneous global symmetry breaking, Abelian and non-Abelian gauge symmetry, the Higgs mechanism, exact chiral gauge symmetry, anomalies and their cancellation, fermion mass generation, the CKM matrix, approximate global chiral symmetry in QCD and its spontaneous breaking, as well as mesons and baryons as confined quark and gluon states. Connections will also be made with the experimental manifestations of these theoretical concepts.
