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High-energy colliders and the rise of the standard model

Abstract

Over the past quarter of a century, experiments at high-energy particle colliders have established the standard model as the precise theory of particle interactions up to the 100 GeV scale. A series of important experimental discoveries and measurements have filled in most of the missing pieces and tested the predictions of the standard model with great precision.

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Figure 1: Particle interactions.
Figure 2: The OPAL experiment at LEP.
Figure 3: The cross-section for e+e annihilation to hadrons as a function of Ecm.
Figure 4: Comparison of the effective electroweak mixing angle, sin2θWeff, derived from six classes of asymmetry measurements.
Figure 5: Leptonic branching ratios.
Figure 6: Top-quark production, and virtual loops.
Figure 7: Contours at 68% confidence level showing the direct (LEP2 and the Tevatron) and indirect (LEP1 and SLC) measurements of mW and mt.
Figure 8: A test of the consistency of the standard-model fit to all available high-energy electroweak precise data.

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Correspondence should be addressed to T.W. (twyatt@fnal.gov; Terry.Wyatt@manchester.ac.uk).

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Wyatt, T. High-energy colliders and the rise of the standard model. Nature 448, 274–280 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature06075

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