In the winter semester 2014/15, I will offer a special lecture on “Physics beyond the Standard Model” at TUM. The lecture will take place in the “Handbibliothek” (room 3343 in the Physics Department) every Wednesday from 10:30-12:00 (note the change of time), starting on October 8.
The lecture is targeted at Master students. The aim is to enable the participants to start their own, independent research in particle physics phenomenology. To this end, we will look at motivations to extend the Standard Model of particle physics, at the most important classes of new physics models, and at the ways these models can be tested in the future. Since the starting point is the Standard Model, a basic knowledge of Quantum Field theory is required. In terms of previous lectures at TUM,
- “Introduction to Quantum Field Theory” as well as “Quantum Field Theory I” are necessary prerequisites. If you have missed these lectures, you might want to go through the basics of QFT using textbooks.
- “Theoretical Particle Physics” is not strictly necessary, but if you have not attended it, I suggest you read up on the Standard Model, e.g. chapter 20 of Peskin/Schröder, chapters 87-89 of Srednicki (you can also find some excellent PDF lecture notes online).
- “Quantum Field Theory II” is not a necessary prerequisite (but is of course beneficial).
The topics covered in the lecture include
- A brief review of the Standard Model
- Shortcomings of the Standard Model and the need for new physics
- Effective field theories and the hierarchy problem
- Indirect test of new physics (electroweak precision tests, flavour physics, Higgs physics)
- Supersymmetry and the MSSM
- Composite Higgs models
The focus will always be on the phenomenology, i.e. on the experimentally testable theoretical aspects.
The lecture will be held in English, unless all the participants are fluent in (Swabian) German. At the end of the course, there will be an optional 25-minute oral exam (the exam is required to get the 5 ECTS points).
If you plan to attend this lecture, please sign up for it on TUMonline. This will allow me to more efficiently prepare the lecture and to offer supplementary material on Moodle (but you are welcome to attend even if you didn’t sign up).