Models of Electroweak Symmetry Breaking

Abstract

Discovering the dynamics responsible for electroweak symmetry breaking is the outstanding question facing particle physics today, and the answer will be found in the next decade. In these lectures I discuss the range of models which have been proposed to explain electroweak symmetry breaking. I begin with an overview of Higgs models, with emphasis on the naturalness/hierarchy and triviality problems, and then consider general lessons which can be drawn about the symmetry breaking sector in arbitrary scalar models. Subsequently, I discuss the symmetry breaking sector in supersymmetric models and then consider models of dynamical electroweak symmetry breaking. I conclude with a brief review of the open questions.