The quest for new phenomena
Ian Hinchliffe · University of North Texas Digital Library (University of North Texas) · 1996
The Standard Model of particle physics has been very successful in describing experimental data with great precision. With the exception of some neutrino anomalies, there is no data that is in disagreement with it. Nevertheless, the model is regarded as incomplete and unsatisfactory. There is no explanation of the pattern of quark and lepton masses and, possibly more important, no understanding of the scale of electroweak interactions. Electroweak symmetry breaking is implemented in the Standard Model from the presence of a scalar electroweak doublet, the Higgs field, that acquires a vacuum expectation value of order 250 GeV and leaves as a remnant one physical state, the electrically neutral Higgs boson whose mass is not predicted. In this talk, the author compares the techniques used at, and capabilities of, various facilities in searching for new phenomena. The author emphasizes the cases where information from more than one facility may be needed to fully explore the physics.