VVZ API is not affiliated with ETH Zurich. Data might be outdated or incorrect. Please view the official ETHZ Vorlesungsverzeichnis for binding information.

402-0899-65L 6 Credits DR , MSC D-PHYS

Higgs Physics

Lecturers & Examiners: Dr. Massimiliano Grazzini, Prof. Dr. Mauro Donegà
Special Students UZH must book the module PHY567 directly at UZH.
VVZ CR n/a

Last Updated: 2026-02-05 16:02:04

Abstract

This year we celebrate the tenth anniversary of the discovery of the Higgs boson.With this course the students will receive a detailed introduction to the physics of the Higgs boson in the Standard Model. They will acquire the necessary theoretical background and learn about the main experimental methods used to study the physics the Higgs boson.

Objective

With this course the students will receive a detailed introduction to the physics of the Higgs boson in the Standard Model. They will acquire the necessary theoretical background to understand the main production and decay channels of the Higgs boson at high-energy colliders, and the corresponding experimental signatures.

Content

Theory part: - the Standard Model and the mass problem: WW scattering and the no-lose theorem - the Higgs mechanism and its implementation in the Standard Model - radiative corrections and the screening theorem - theoretical constraints on the Higgs mass; the hierarchy problem - Higgs production in e+e- collisions - Higgs production at hadron colliders - Higgs decays to fermions and vector bosons - Higgs differential distributions, rapidity distribution, pt spectrum and jet vetoes - Higgs properties and beyond the Standard Model perspective - Outlook: The Higgs sector in weakly coupled and strongly coupled new physics scenarios. Experimental part: Introductory material: - basics of accelerators and detectors - reminders of statistics: likelihoods, hypothesis testing - reminders of multivariate techniques: Boosted Decision Trees and Neural Networks Main topics: - pre-history (pre-LEP) - LEP1: measurements at the Z-pole - Electroweak constraints - LEP2: towards the limit mH<114 GeV - TeVatron searches - LHC: -- main channels overview -- dissect one analysis -- combine information from all channels -- differential measurements -- off-shell measurements

Resources

Literature

- Higgs Hunter's Guide (by S.Dawson, J. Gunion, H. Haber and G. Kane) - A. Djouadi, The Anatomy of electro-weak symmetry breaking. I: The Higgs boson in the standard model, Phys.Rept. 457 (2008) 1. - PDG review of "Passage of particles through matter" http://pdg.lbl.gov/2014/reviews/rpp2014-rev-passage-particles-matter.pdf - PDG review of "Accelerators" http://pdg.lbl.gov/2014/reviews/rpp2014-rev-accel-phys-colliders.pdf - "The searches for Higgs Bosons at LEP" M. Kado and C. Tully, Annu. Rev. Nucl. Part. Sci. 2002. 52:65-113 - "Combination of Tevatron searches for the standard model Higgs boson in the W+W- decay mode" HWW TeVatron combination - http://arxiv.org/abs/1001.4162 - "Evidence for a particle produced in association with weak bosons and decaying to a bottom-antibottom quark pair in Higgs boson searches at the TeVatron" http://arxiv.org/abs/1207.6436 - "Higgs Boson Studies at the Tevatron" http://arxiv.org/abs/1303.6346 - “Asymptotic formulae for likelihood-based tests of new physics” Cowan, Cranmer, Gross, Vitells http://arxiv.org/abs/1007.1727 - "Precise determination of the mass of the Higgs boson and tests of compatibility of its couplings with the standard model predictions using proton collisions at 7 and 8 TeV" https://arxiv.org/abs/1412.8662 - "Measurement of the Higgs boson mass from the H→γγ and H→ZZ∗→4ℓ channels with the ATLAS detector using 25 fb−1 of pp collision data" http://arxiv.org/abs/1406.3827 - "Combined Measurement of the Higgs Boson Mass in pp Collisions at √s=7 and 8 TeV with the ATLAS and CMS Experiments" http://arxiv.org/abs/1503.07589 - "Measurements of the Higgs boson production and decay rates and constraints on its couplings from a combined ATLAS and CMS analysis of the LHC pp collision data at √s=7 and 8 TeV" https://arxiv.org/abs/1606.02266 - "Projections of Higgs Boson measurements with 30/fb at 8 TeV and 300/fb at 14 TeV" https://twiki.cern.ch/twiki/bin/view/CMSPublic/HigProjectionEsg2012TWiki

General Information

Language
English
Levels
DR , MSC

Examination

Type
session examination
Mode
oral 30 minutes

Course Components

Type Title Time & Place Hours
lecture Higgs Physics
**together with University of Zurich** More information at:
  • Wed 13:45-15:30 (HIL C 10.2)
2 h weekly
exercise Higgs Physics
**together with University of Zurich** More information at:
  • Wed 12:45-13:30 (HIL C 10.2)
1 h weekly

Offered In