Electroweak Symmetry Breaking
M.S. Chanowitz, J. F. Gunion A · 1992
The Higgs mechanism is reviewed in its most general form, requiring the existence of a new symmetry-breaking force and associated particles, which need not however be Higgs bosons. The first lecture reviews the essential elements of the Higgs mechanism, which suffice to establish low energy theorems for the scattering of longitudinally polarized W and Z gauge bosons. An upper bound on the scale of the symmetry-breaking physics then follows from the low energy theorems and partial wave unitarity. The second lecture reviews particular models, with and without Higgs bosons, paying special attention to how the general features discussed in lecture 1 are realized in each model. The third lecture focuses on the experimental signals of strong WW scattering that can be observed at the SSC above 1 TeV in the WW subenergy, which will allow direct measurement of the strength of the symmetry-breaking force. 52 refs., 10 figs.