Ebook: Electroweak physics at LEP and LHC

During more than 10 years, the LEP accelerator and the LEP experiments 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.

The first part of this volume gives a short theoretical introduction and describes the most important physics results obtained at LEP. Emphasis is put on the properties of the electroweak gauge bosons, which was the main research field at LEP. Details on interesting other physics effects like Colour Reconnection and Bose-Einstein Correlations are discussed as well. A summary of the current electroweak measurements as the pillars of precision tests of theoretical models is given. The analysis of electroweak data concludes the status of electroweak physics as known today. It allows a determination of unmeasured physics parameters of the Standard Model, like the mass of the Higgs boson, but constrains also physics beyond the Standard Model.

The second part of this volume introduces the expected electroweak measurements as well as Higgs boson searches at the newly built LHC. After a description of the LHC collider and its experiments, the projected performance for an improved determination of electroweak observables is presented. The masses of the W boson and of the top quark as well as the weak mixing angle are being focused on. One of the main goals of the LHC experiments is however the finding of the Standard Model Higgs boson or of new physics. The search for the Higgs boson and the future determination of its properties, like mass, spin and behaviour under CP transformation, are therefore summarized, pointing out interesting relations with the LEP results.

If the LHC experiments meet the expectations presented here they will definitely shed light on one of the primary questions of today’s particle physics research: the origin of electroweak symmetry breaking and of the masses of the fundamental particles.

This up-to-date book reviews the experimental results on electroweak physics obtained at the Large Electron Positron collider, LEP, and those expected at the Large Hadron Collider, LHC. The LEP measurements are the cornerstones of precision tests of the electroweak Standard Model. The first part of the volume concentrates especially on the high-energy phase of LEP and the measurements of the mass of the W boson and the couplings between the electroweak gauge bosons, giving many details also on other physics effects like Colour Reconnection and Bose-Einstein correlations.

The discussion of the recent determination of the Standard Model parameters leads eventually to the future electroweak physics at the LHC. After introducing the experimental details, the improvements envisaged with respect to today’s measurements are summarized. The expectations for searches for the Standard Model Higgs boson conclude the presentation of LHC physics.

The reader obtains a concise view of the present day status of electroweak physics and an outlook to the near future, illustrated with many informative figures and tables.