Strong dynamics constitutes one of the pillars of the standard model of particle interactions, and it accounts for the bulk of the visible matter in the universe made by ordinary protons and neutrons. It is therefore a well posed question to ask if the rest of the universe can be described in terms of new highly natural four-dimensional strongly coupled theories. The main goal of this lecture-based primer is to provide a coherent overview of how new strong dynamics can be employed to address the relevant challenges in particle physics and cosmology from composite Higgs dynamics to dark matter and inflation. We will first introduce the topic of dynamical breaking of the electroweak symmetry also known as technicolor. The knowledge of the phase diagram of strongly coupled theories plays a fundamental role when trying to construct viable extensions of the standard model. Therefore we present the state-of-the-art of the phase diagram for gauge theories as function of the number of colors, flavors, matter representation and gauge group. Recent extensions of the standard model featuring minimal technicolor theories are then introduced as relevant examples. We finally show how technicolor or in general new strongly coupled theories can lead to natural candidates of composite dark matter and inflation.

Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Klappentext
This lecture-based, concise primer introduces and summarize basic features associated with dynamical breaking of the electroweak symmetry in elementary particle physics.
In particular, the phase diagram of strongly-coupled theories as function of the number of colors, flavors and matter representation, playing a fundamental role when trying to construct viable extensions of the standard model, are examined for SU(N) gauge theories with fermionic matter transforming according to arbitrary representations of the underlying gauge group. We will further discuss how the phase diagram can be used to construct unparticle models and then review Minimal Walking Technicolor (MWT) and other extensions, such as partially gauged and split technicolor.
Eventually, the unification of the standard model gauge couplings will be revisited within technicolor extensions of the standard model.
A number of appendices will help student and newcomers to the field reviewing some basic methods and provide them with useful details.

Inhalt

Technicolor Prelude.- Conformal Dynamics Interlude.- Minimal Technicolor Models: Toccata and Fugue.- Composite Dark Matters: Coda.- Appendix.