A Theorist’s Introduction to Physics at the Large Hadron Collider

Physics is an empirical science. Every “theory” needs to be validated by experiments; every experimental result needs to be examined and an explanation deduced. Viewed in the context of particle physics, this simple statement has multi-billion dollar implications. The subject is indeed interestingly poised at this point in time. While we may boast of a spectacularly successful “Standard Model”, particle physicists across the globe are waiting with baited breath for “New Physics” to be discovered at one of the largest, most complicated and most expensive experiments in the history of humankind, namely the “Large Hadron Collider”.