This first open access volume of the handbook series contains articles on the standard model of particle physics, both from the theoretical and experimental perspective. It also covers related topics, such as heavy-ion physics, neutrino physics and searches for new physics beyond the standard model. A joint CERN-Springer initiative, the "Particle Physics Reference Library" provides revised and updated contributions based on previously published material in the well-known Landolt-Boernstein series on particle physics, accelerators and detectors (volumes 21A, B1,B2,C), which took stock of the field approximately one decade ago. Central to this new initiative is publication under full open access

Supersymmetry is at an exciting stage of development. It extends the Standard Model of particle physics into a more powerful theory that both explains more and allows more questions to be addressed. Most important, it opens a window for studying and testing fundamental theories at the Planck scale. Experimentally we are finally entering the intensity and energy regions where superpartners are likely to be detected, and then studied. There has been progress in understanding the remarkable physics implications of supersymmetry, including the derivation of the Higgs mechanism, the unification of the Standard Model forces, cosmological connections such as a candidate for the cold dark matter of the universe and the scalar fields that drive inflation and their potential, the relationship to Planck scale theories, and more.While there are a number of reviews and books where the mathematical structure and uses of supersymmetry can be learned, there are few where the particle physics is the main focus. This book fills that gap. It begins with an excellent pedagogical introduction to the physics and methods and formalism of supersymmetry, by S Martin, which is accessible to anyone with a basic knowledge of the Standard Model of particle physics. Next is an overview of open questions by K Dienes and C Kolda, followed by chapters on topics ranging from how to detect superpartners to connections with Planck scale theories, by leading experts.This invaluable book will allow any interested physicist to understand the coming experimental and theoretical progress in supersymmetry, and will also help students and workers to quickly learn new aspects of supersymmetry they want to pursue.

The recent observation of the Higgs boson has been hailed as the scientific discovery of the century and led to the 2013 Nobel Prize in physics. This book describes the detailed science behind the decades-long search for this elusive particle at the Large Electron Positron Collider at CERN and at the Tevatron at Fermilab and its subsequent discovery and characterization at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. Written by physicists who played leading roles in this epic search and discovery, this book is an authoritative and pedagogical exposition of the portrait of the Higgs boson that has emerged from a large number of experimental measurements. As the first of its kind, this book should be of interest to graduate students and researchers in particle physics.

With the discovery of the Higgs boson, the LHC experiments have closed the most important gap in our understanding of fundamental interactions, confirming that such interactions between elementary particles can be described by quantum field theory, more specifically by a renormalizable gauge theory. This theory is a priori valid for arbitrarily high energy scales and does not require an ultraviolet completion. Yet, when trying to apply the concrete knowledge of quantum field theory to actual LHC physics - in particular to the Higgs sector and certain regimes of QCD - one inevitably encounters an intricate maze of phenomenological know-how, common lore and other, often historically developed intuitions about what works and what doesn’t. These lectures cover three aspects to help understand LHC results in the Higgs sector and in searches for physics beyond the Standard Model: they discuss the many facets of Higgs physics, which is at the core of this significantly expanded second edition; then QCD, to the degree relevant for LHC measurements; as well as further standard phenomenological background knowledge. They are intended to serve as a brief but sufficiently detailed primer on LHC physics to enable graduate students and all newcomers to the field to find their way through the more advanced literature, and to help those starting to work in this very timely and exciting field of research. Advanced readers will benefit from this course-based text for their own lectures and seminars. .

These lectures give an elementary introduction to the important recent developments of the applications of N=1 supergravity to the construction of unified models of elementary particle interactions. Topics covered include couplings of supergravity with matter, spontaneous symmetry breaking and the super-higgs effect, construction of supergravity unified models, and the phenomenon of SU(2) x U(1) electroweak-symmetry breaking by supergravity. Experimental consequences of N-1 supergravity unified theory, in particular, the possible supersymmetric decays of the W± and Z0 bosons, are also discussed. The treatment presented encompasses a broad class of models, both of the tree breaking as well as the radiative breaking of SU(2) x U(1). Rules of tensor calculus and the explicit construction of the Lagrangian of the Supergravity-matter couplings are given in the appendix.

This 2006 book uses the standard model as a vehicle for introducing quantum field theory.