TASI 2016 Lectures: Electroweak Symmetry Breaking and Effective Field Theory

Abstract

I give a pedagogical introduction to the physics of electroweak symmetry breaking and the uses of effective field theory in the context of Higgs physics. Higgs boson production and decay at the LHC and the consistency of the Higgs measurements with triviality arguments, vacuum stability, and precision electroweak measurements are discussed. Effective Lagrangian techniques are used to understand potential deviations from the Standard Model (SM) predictions. Finally, I end with a brief discussion of the future of Higgs physics.

Lectures given at 2016 TASI Summer School, Boulder, Colorado, 67 pages; V2, typos fixed, references added