Beyond the Standard Model Lectures

TL;DR

This paper reviews beyond the Standard Model theories like supersymmetry, grand unification, and extra dimensions, focusing on their collider phenomenology and how effective field theory can interpret recent B meson decay anomalies.

Contribution

It provides an overview of beyond Standard Model paradigms and discusses their collider signatures, including the application of effective field theory to recent experimental discrepancies.

Findings

Key examples of new states in collider events

Use of effective field theory in B meson decay analysis

Discussion of unresolved mysteries in the Standard Model

Abstract

We cover some current topics in Beyond the Standard Model phenomenology, with an emphasis on collider (particularly Large Hadron Collider) phenomenology. We begin with a review of the Standard Model and some unresolved mysteries that it leaves. Then, we shall heuristically introduce supersymmetry, grand unified theories and extra dimensions as paradigms for expanding the Standard Model. The collider phenomenology of such models is too rich and complex to review, but we give some key examples of how the new states associated with the models might be inferred in Large Hadron Collider events. Before concluding, we finish with a brief description of a quantum field theory approximation that can be used in some cases to reduce model dependence: effective field theory. We show how this can be employed to explain recent measurements of decays of $B$ mesons, which disagree with Standard Model predictions.