Abstract:

The Standard Model of particle physics describes the interactions of fundamental particles via the electroweak and strong forces. I will present tests of both sectors of the Standard Model at the highest energy particle accelerators: the HERA electron-proton collider and the Tevatron proton-antiproton collider. Furthermore, there may be new as yet unknown particles and forces that explain some deficiencies of the Standard Model. Supersymmetric particles or extra spatial dimensions could for example help explaining the large difference between the electroweak and the Planck energy scales, known as the hierarchy problem. I will highlight recent searches for some of these unknown particles beyond the Standard Model.