The SU(2)_L x U(1)_Y gauge theory of the electroweak
interactions has enjoyed tremendous success over the past four decades,
accurately predicting, or at least accommodating, all high-energy collider
data. The gauge group must be broken somehow to U(1)_EM, because the
unbroken theory predicts massless gauge bosons and massless fermions.
The Standard Model incorporates a minimal Higgs sector with a single
complex doublet field, to break the symmetry spontaneously, but it is not
the only possibility. SUSY Higgses, general two-Higgs-doublet models,
and other ideas may prove to model nature better than the minimal model.
Many of these models, and even the SM, prefer a light Higgs boson, with
a mass between the LEP limit of 114.4 GeV and 200 GeV. The Constrained
MSSM favors masses under 120 GeV. A survey of the experimental work so
far at LEP and the Tevatron, with estimations of the sensitivity of the
upcoming LHC experiments is provided.
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Updated: Thursday, 2007 November 29 14:21:57 CST automatically from input from carol picciolo