This book reviews recent contributions of electron positron colliders to the precision test of the electroweak Standard Model. It includes a short summary of the measurements at the Z resonance and gives an overview of the electroweak processes above the Z. Subsequently, measurements of the W mass at LEP are discussed in detail. Late chapters offer an outlook on electroweak physics at the future LHC. Also features many illustrations and tables.

This up-to-date volume reviews the recent contributions of electron-positron colliders to the precision test of the electroweak Standard Model. In particular, it contains a short summary of the measurements at the Z resonance and gives an overview of the electroweak processes above the Z. Subsequently, the measurement of the W mass at LEP is discussed in detail. The implications for the precision test of the Standard Model are presented, giving the status of the global electroweak fit before the startup of Large Hadron Collider. The final chapters give an outlook on the electroweak physics at a future linear collider. The book also features many illustrations and tables. Readers obtain a coherent overview of the results of 20 years of electroweak physics conducted at electron-positron colliders.

During more than 10 years, from 1989 until 2000, the LEP accelerator and the four LEP experiments, ALEPH, DELPHI, L3 and OPAL, have taken data for a large amount of measurements at the frontier of particle physics. The main outcome is a thorough and successful test of the Standard Model of electroweak interactions. Mass and width of the Z and W bosons were measured precisely, as well as the Z and photon couplings to fermions and the couplings among gauge bosons. The rst part of this work will describe the most important physics results of the LEP experiments. Emphasis is put on the properties of the W boson, which was my main research eld at LEP. Especially the precise determination of its mass and its couplings to the other gauge bosons will be described. Details on physics effects like Colour Reconnection and Bose-Einstein Correlations in W-pair events shall be discussed as well. A conclusive summary of the current electroweak measurements, including low-energy results, as the pillars of possible future ndings will be given. The important contributions from Tevatron, like the measurement of the top quark and W mass, will round up the present day picture of electroweak particle physics.

This volume deals with the electroweak interactions at low and high energies. The results of the collider experiments are discussed, and the low energy experiments with complications for astrophysics are considered. Also, theoretical developments are presented to highlight the impact of forthcoming experiments and to find new directions of study.

This book provides a comprehensive summary of studies of the Z boson in electron positron interactions. The results that have been obtained have achieved unprecedented accuracy and have firmly established the Electroweak Standard Model as the cornerstone of our current understanding of modern particle physics. The book introduces the background to the Standard Model and the role of the Z boson and describes briefly the accelerators and experiments involved in these results. The five main chapters deal with the detailed measurements of the electroweak parameters of the Z, the study of QCD, heavy quark physics, tau lepton physics and the search for new particles. Each chapter ends with a summary and outlook to prospects of future accelerators. Most of the results are from the first six years running at the first phase of electron positron collider, LEP, at energies corresponding to the Z mass, but results from the SLAC Linear Collider and some new results at higher energies are also included.

This review gives a brief discussion of the structure of the Standard Model and its quantum corrections for testing the electroweak theory at current and future colliders. The predictions for the vector boson masses, neutrino scattering cross sections, and the Z resonance observables such as the width of the Z resonance, partial widths, effective neutral current coupling constants and mixing angles at the Z peak, are presented. Recent experimental data and their implications for the present status of the Standard Model are compared. Finally, the question of how virtual new physics can influence the predictions for the precision observables and the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM) as a special example of particular theoretical interest are discussed.