These four lectures constitute a gentle introduction to what may lie beyond
the standard model of quarks and leptons interacting through SU(3)cââSU(2)LââU(1)Yâ gauge bosons, prepared for an audience of graduate
students in experimental particle physics. In the first lecture, I introduce a
novel graphical representation of the particles and interactions, the double
simplex, to elicit questions that motivate our interest in physics beyond the
standard model, without recourse to equations and formalism. Lecture 2 is
devoted to a short review of the current status of the standard model,
especially the electroweak theory, which serves as the point of departure for
our explorations. The third lecture is concerned with unified theories of the
strong, weak, and electromagnetic interactions. In the fourth lecture, I survey
some attempts to extend and complete the electroweak theory, emphasizing some
of the promise and challenges of supersymmetry. A short concluding section
looks forward.Comment: 64 pages, 43 figures, uses cernrep.cls and other included macros.
2003 Latin-American School of High-Energy Physic