Article,
Unanswered Questions in the Electroweak Theory
(Jul 7, 2009)
DOI: 10.1146/annurev.nucl.010909.083126
Abstract
This article is devoted to the status of the electroweak theory on the eve of
experimentation at CERN's Large Hadron Collider. A compact summary of the logic
and structure of the electroweak theory precedes an examination of what
experimental tests have established so far. The outstanding unconfirmed
prediction of the electroweak theory is the existence of the Higgs boson, a
weakly interacting spin-zero particle that is the agent of electroweak symmetry
breaking, the giver of mass to the weak gauge bosons, the quarks, and the
leptons. General arguments imply that the Higgs boson or other new physics is
required on the TeV energy scale. Indirect constraints from global analyses of
electroweak measurements suggest that the mass of the standard-model Higgs
boson is less than 200 GeV. Once its mass is assumed, the properties of the
Higgs boson follow from the electroweak theory, and these inform the search for
the Higgs boson. Alternative mechanisms for electroweak symmetry breaking are
reviewed, and the importance of electroweak symmetry breaking is illuminated by
considering a world without a specific mechanism to hide the electroweak
symmetry.
For all its triumphs, the electroweak theory has many shortcomings. . . .
