4025081 – Non-supersymmetric Extensions of the Standard Model

The Standard Model of particle physics, while successful in describing laboratory data, is incomplete. Both theoretical considerations and astrophysical/cosmological observations require its extension. This course provides an introduction to physics beyond of the Standard Model, focussing on models which do not require the introduction of supersymmetry. Instead, the hierarchy between the Planck scale of gravity and the weak scale can be stabilised in models in which the electroweak gauge symmetry is broken dynamically. We discuss the theoretical concepts and tools used to describe dynamical symmetry breaking and then study some popular examples of models which realise this idea, ranging from Little Higgs models to composite Higgs scenarios, models with extra dimensions and gauge-Higgs unification.