Quantum field theory and the structure of the Standard Model

Abstract

The Standard Model of the electroweak and strong interactions of particle physics is a quantum field theory. Elementary particles are not indivisible 'pieces' of matter but energy bundles of fields, whose properties and interactions are a consequence of the principles of symmetry. These lecture notes provide a brief introduction to the construction of the Standard Model from its basic ingredients: Poincaré symmetry, gauge invariance and spontaneous symmetry breaking. The full Lagrangian is derived in detail and the most relevant aspects of the electroweak phenomenology are discussed with special emphasis on the determination of the input parameters and the consistency checks of the model. Some exercises are proposed to fix the main ideas.