Course Description
The Standard Model is a relativistic quantum field theory that summarizes our current understanding of the interactions of fundamental quantum fields. The quantized excitations of these fields manifest themselves as particles. As a gauge theory, the Standard Model describes interactions mediated by gauge boson fields or by the Higgs field. Electromagnetic gauge interactions are mediated by photons, the weak interactions by W- and Z-bosons, and the strong interactions (quantum chromodynamics, QCD) by gluons. Fermionic matter fields include lepton and quark fields. While quarks participate in all gauge interactions, leptons participate only in the electroweak gauge interaction. The Higgs field gives rise to spontaneous symmetry breaking, thereby generating mass to most of the other fields.
The Standard Model will be developed step by step, beginning with the Higgs sector, followed by the introduction of gauge fields, and finally adding fermionic matter fields. Along the way, the course addresses 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 Cabibbo–Kobayashi–Maskawa (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 are also drawn between these theoretical concepts and their experimental manifestations.
Registration for the ILIAS course Standard Model is required. The lectures will be delivered live at the blackboard and will also be available as podcasts.
