W and Z Bosons at the High-Energy Frontier

Dr. Michael Schmitt

Department of Physics

Nortwestern University

The particle physics energy frontier has jumped from 2 TeV at the Fermilab Tevatron to 7 TeV at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The opportunities for investigating standard model processes are legion and new results abound. Some of the most beautiful measurements involve one or more W and Z bosons, i.e., the carriers of the electroweak force. I will explain and discuss some of these measurements and show how they demonstrate the validity of the Standard Model (SM). I will also discuss the main hole in the SM, namely, the Higgs boson associated with electroweak symmetry breaking and the origin of the mass of the fundamental particles. While no one has or can claim discovery of this key part of the SM, there are hints of a signal that may well be confirmed later this year.

Refreshments will be served in CP 179 at 3:15 PM