Charting Fundamental Interactions: from Freedom to Safety

Abstract

This mini-school is primarily addressed to Ph.D. students and post-docs in high energy particle physics. The aim of the school is to give an introduction to the basic concepts and tools needed for research in the theory of fundamental interactions, covering the foundations of the subject at a deep and advanced level. The adjective fundamental applies to theories that can be trusted at any energy scale, in particular up to arbitrary high energies. The prime example is QCD in isolation, which flows towards a free theory in the Ultra-Violet. More recently, attention is being devoted to safe theories which, instead, flow towards a strong or weak interactive fixed point. Remarkably, the Standard Model in isolation does not belong to either class of fundamental theories. The lectures will aim at charting the landscape of fundamental theories, from phenomenological applications, to the construction of theories with and without gravity, to lattice tests.