Exploring the high energy frontier at the LHC

The Standard Model of particle physics is arguably one of the most successful physical theories ever developed. In this talk we give an historical introduction of the various theoretical and experimental discoveries that have lead to the formulation of the Standard Model, from the electron to the discovery of the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider.

This talk recalls the generation of mass in the Standard Model by illustrating the mechanism of electroweak symmetry via the Higgs field. It then reviews the history of the discovery of the Higgs boson in the first run of the LHC and summarises the current status of measurements of its properties. In this context the importance of high-precision perturbative calculations is emphasized.

The existence of dark matter is inferred from its gravitational effects on visible matter, on radiation and on the large-scale structure of the Universe. Dark matter has so far not been detected in a laboratory, making it one of the greatest mysteries in modern physics. In this talk, I try to explain how the Large Hadron Collider, the very same machine that discovered the Higgs boson, can also be used to uncover the nature of dark matter.