The State of the Standard Model

Abstract

I quickly review the successes of quantum chromodynamics. Then I assess the current state of the electroweak theory, making brief comments about the search for the Higgs boson and some of the open issues for the theory. I sketch the problems of mass and mass scales, and point to a speculative link between the question of identity and large extra dimensions. To conclude, I return to QCD and the possibility that its phase structure might inform our understanding of electroweak symmetry breaking.

Comments: 26 pages, 15 figures, uses aipproc (included) and boxedeps; opening lecture at Conference on the Physics Potential and Development of Muon Colliders and Neutrino Factories, San Francisco, December 15-17, 1999. Added references