The papers contained in this volume are invited lec tures presented at the 21st "Universit~tswochen fUr Kern physik" in Schladming in February 1982. To consider electro magnetic and weak interactions as manifestations of a single theory is a standpoint, which is generally accepted by now. The goal of the school was to outline the present state of this unified theory and to discuss possible future developments. Thanks to the generous support provided by the Austrian Ministry of Science and Research, the Styrian Government and other sponsors, it was again possible to invite experts in the field as lecturers. The lecture notes have been reexamined by the authors and are now published in their final form to enable a larger number of physicists to profit from them. Since the lectures are already quite voluminous, we have decided to restrict the publication to the lectures themselves and omit all seminars, interesting as they were, as well as all details connected with the meeting. It is a pleasure to thank all the lecturers for their efforts, making it possible to speed up publication. Thanks are also due to L. Pittner for organisation and proof-reading as well as to Mrs. Krenn and Mrs. Neuhold for the careful typing of the papers. H. Mitter Acta Physica Austriaca, Suppl. XXIV, 3-62 (1982) © by Springer-Verlag 1982 INTRODUCTION TO GAUGE THEORIES OF ELECTRO + WEAK INTERACTIONS by G. ECKER Institut fUr Theoretische Physik Universitat Wien, Austria TABLE OF CONTENTS I

The first Europhysics Study Conference on Electroweak Effects at High Energies was held at the "Ettore Majorana" Centre for Scientific Culture in Erice, Sicily from February 1 -12, 1983. The conference was attended by 61 physicists from 11 countries. The conference was sponsored by the European Physical Society, the Italian Ministry of Public Education, the Italian Ministry of Technological Research, the Sicilian Regional Government and the California Institute of Technology. CONFERENCE FORMAT The Study Conference followed a new intensive format in which the state of our knowledge of the electroweak interaction, and the relation of the electroweak sector to Grand Unified and Superunified Theories was reviewed in some depth. During the two week conference, 54 experimental and theoretical talks were presented, and four evening discussion sessions were held. The Erice surroundings, the wide-ranging conference program, and the fact that nearly all of the participants were directly involved in recent major experimental or theoretical developments, led to animated and very friendly discussions. Participants had the rare opportunity to view most of the major trends in high energy physics in a short interval of time, and to discuss and contemplate the trends in the uniquely peaceful yet stimulating atmosphere which is an Erice tradition.

The purpose of this workshop was to explore the potential of present (TRISTAN, LEP1, SLC) and future (LEP2, NLC) e⁺e⁻ colliding-beam experiments to test the standard model of electroweak and strong interactions with high precision and to probe new physics.

A graduate-level description of how the theory of electroweak interactions, or so-called "Standard Model" unifies the weak and electromagnetic forces of nature in high energy physics.

This volume provides a broad picture of the current understanding of electroweak and strong interactions, according to most recent experimental results from some of the world's largest particle accelerators: LEP II, Tevatron, HERA and SPS. Special attention is given to CP violation, the Higgs boson search, and precision tests of the electroweak thoery. Although generally oriented, the contributions are targeted at postgraduate students in particle physics.