ar X iv : h ep - p h / 03 08 14 5 v 1 1 3 A ug 2 00 3 Electroweak Physics

The results of high precision weak neutral current (WNC), Z-pole, and high energy col-lider electroweak experiments have been the primary prediction and test of electroweak unification. The electroweak program is briefly reviewed from a historical perspective. Current changes, anomalies , and things to watch are summarized, and the implications for the standard model and beyond discussed. The weak neutral current was a critical prediction of the electroweak standard model (SM) [1, 2]. Following its discovery in 1973 by the Gargamelle and HPW experiments , there were generations of ever more precise WNC experiments, typically at the few % level. These included pure weak νN and νe scattering processes, and weak-electromagnetic interference processes such as polarized e ↑↓ D or µN, e + e − → (hadron or charged lepton) cross sections and asymmetries below the Z pole, and parity-violating effects in heavy atoms (APV). There were also early direct observations of the W and Z by UA1 and UA2. The early 1990's witnessed the very precise Z-pole experiments at LEP and the SLC, in which the lineshape, decay modes, and various asymmetries were measured at the 0.1% level. The subsequent LEP 2 program at higher energies measured M W , searched for the Higgs and other new particles, and constrained anomalous gauge self-interactions. Parallel efforts at the Tevatron by CDF and DØ led to the direct discovery of the t and measurements of m t and M W , while a fourth generation of weak neutral current experiments continued to search for new physics to which the (more precise) Z-pole experiments were blind. The program was supported by theoretical efforts in the calculation of QCD and electroweak radiative corrections; the expectations for observables in the standard model, large classes of extensions, and alternative models; and global analyses of the data. The precision program has established that the standard model (SM) is correct and unique to first approximation, establishing the gauge principle as well as the SM gauge group and representations; shown that the SM is correct at loop level, confirming the basic principles of renormalizable gauge theory and allowing the successful prediction or constraint on m t , α s , and the Higgs mass M H ; severely constrained new physics at the TeV scale, with the ideas of unification strongly favored over TeV-scale compositeness; and yielded precise values for the gauge couplings, consistent with (supersymmetric) gauge unification.