In June 1997, fifty-seven of the world's best students gathered at TASI '97 in Boulder, Colorado, USA, to attend an intensive series of lectures on the theory and phenomenology of supersymmetry, supergravity and supercolliders. This book contains the proceedings of that school. It is aimed at advanced graduate students as well as postdoctoral and other researchers. It provides a snapshot of the state-of-the-art in an active area of high energy particle theory, and may perhaps serve as a preview of physics to be discovered in the next decade.
Neutrinos are the central thread in the study of many aspects of particle physics and astrophysics. Neutrino interactions test the standard electroweak theory and its TeV scale extensions, and examine the structure of the nucleon and of the CKM matrix. Searches for neutrino mass and other intrinsic properties probe new physics at very short distance scales. The weak interactions of neutrinos imply for them a unique role in studying the early universe, the core of the Sun, type II supernovae, and active galactic nuclei, and suggest the possibility of small neutrino masses contributing to the missing matter in the Universe, especially on very large distance scales.
Neutrinos are the central thread in the study of many aspects of particle physics and astrophysics. Neutrino interactions test the standard electroweak theory and its TeV scale extensions, and examine the structure of the nucleon and of the CKM matrix. Searches for neutrino mass and other intrinsic properties probe new physics at very short distance scales. The weak interactions of neutrinos imply for them a unique role in studying the early universe, the core of the Sun, type II supernovae, and active galactic nuclei, and suggest the possibility of small neutrino masses contributing to the missing matter in the Universe, especially on very large distance scales.
The book is a fairly non-technical introduction to modern supersymmetry phenomenology, approaching the subject in new and unique ways. It is suitable both for theorists and experimentalists, and emphasizes an intuitive grasp of the subject. Theoretical and experimental motivations, and the status and prospects of low-energy supersymmetry are discussed. It is shown by explicit construction that the stabilization of any perturbative theory which contains fundamental scalar bosons naturally leads to the notion of supersymmetry. The minimal supersymmetric extension of the standard model is then pedagogically defined and its experimental status is summarized. Renormalization of the models, including unificaiton, is discussed and the linkage between high and low energies is demonstrated, providing a potential probe of Planck-scale physics, such as unified theories. Besides a host of other phenomena, Higgs physics is discussed and the Higgs mass is shown to provide a crucial test of nearly all supersymmetric theories.
Supersymmetry or SUSY, one of the most beautiful recent ideas of physics, predicts sparticles existing as superpartners of particles. This book gives a theoretical and phenomenological account of sparticles. Starting from a basic level, it provides a comprehensive, pedagogical and user-friendly treatment of the subject of four-dimensional N=1 supersymmetry as well as its observational aspects in high energy physics and cosmology. Part One of the book introduces the requisite formal theory, preceded by a discussion of the naturalness problem. Part Two describes the supersymmetrization of the Standard Model of particle interactions as well as the origin of soft supersymmetry breaking and how it can be mediated from higher energies. Search strategies for sparticles, supersymmetric Higgs bosons, nonminimal scenarios and cosmological implications are some of the other topics covered. Novel features of the book include a dictionary between two-component and four-component spinor notation, a step-by-step derivation of the nonrenormalization theorem, an extended discussion of supersymmetric renormalization group evolution, detailed analyses of minimal and nonminimal models with gravity (including anomaly) mediated and gauge mediated supersymmetry breaking as well as elaborate self-contained presentations of collider signals of sparticles plus supersymmetric Higgs bosons and of supersymmetric cosmology. Appendices list all Feynman rules for the vertices of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model.
This book covers some recent advances in string theory and extra dimensions. Intended mainly for advanced graduate students in theoretical physics, it presents a rare combination of formal and phenomenological topics, based on the annual lectures given at the School of the Theoretical Advanced Study Institute (2001) — a traditional event that brings together graduate students in high energy physics for an intensive course of advanced learning. The lecturers in the School are leaders in their fields.The first lecture, by E D'Hoker and D Freedman, is a systematic introduction to the gauge-gravity correspondence, focusing in particular on correlation functions in the conformal case. The second, by L Dolan, provides an introduction to perturbative string theory, including recent advances on backgrounds involving Ramond-Ramond fluxes. The third, by S Gubser, explains some of the basic facts about special holonomy and its uses in string theory and M-theory. The fourth, by J Hewett, surveys the TeV phenomenology of theories with large extra dimensions. The fifth, by G Kane, presents the case for supersymmetry at the weak scale and some of its likely experimental consequences. The sixth, by A Liddle, surveys recent developments in cosmology, particularly with regard to recent measurements of the CMB and constraints on inflation. The seventh, by B Ovrut, presents the basic features of heterotic M-theory, including constructions that contain the Standard Model. The eighth, by K Rajagopal, explains the recent advances in understanding QCD at low temperatures and high densities in terms of color superconductivity. The ninth, by M Sher, summarizes grand unified theories and baryogenesis, including discussions of supersymmetry breaking and the Standard Model Higgs mechanism. The tenth, by M Spiropulu, describes collider physics, from a survey of current and future machines to examples of data analyses relevant to theories beyond the Standard Model. The eleventh, by M Strassler, is an introduction to supersymmetric gauge theory, focusing on Wilsonian renormalization and analogies between three- and four-dimensional theories. The twelfth, by W Taylor and B Zwiebach, introduces string field theory and discusses recent advances in understanding open string tachyon condensation. The thirteenth, by D Waldram, discusses explicit model building in heterotic M-theory, emphasizing the role of the E8 gauge fields.The written presentation of these lectures is detailed yet straightforward, and they will be of use to both students and experienced researchers in high-energy theoretical physics for years to come.The proceedings have been selected for coverage in:• Index to Scientific & Technical Proceedings (ISTP CDROM version / ISI Proceedings)• CC Proceedings — Engineering & Physical Sciences
This book, written by leading experts of the field, gives an excellent up-to-date overview of modern neutrino physics and is useful for scientists and graduate students alike. The book starts with a history of neutrinos and then develops from the fundamentals to the direct determination of masses and lifetimes. The role of neutrinos in fundamental astrophysical problems is discussed in detail.
This book is devoted to the broad subject of flavor physics, embracing the question of what distinguishes one type of elementary particles from another. The articles range from the forefront of formal theory (treating the physics of extra dimensions) to details of particle detectors. Although special emphasis is placed on the physics of kaons, charmed and beauty particles, top quarks, and neutrinos, the articles also dealing with electroweak physics, quantum chromodynamics, supersymmetry, and dynamical electroweak symmetry breaking. Violations of fundamental symmetries such as time reversal invariance are discussed in the context of neutral kaons, beauty particles, electric dipole moments, and parity violation in atoms. The physics of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix and of quark masses are described in some detail, both from the standpoint of present and future experimental knowledge and from a more fundamental viewpoint, where physicists are still searching for the correct theory.
