The Higgs Boson and its Physics -- an Overview

The Higgs boson plays a central role in the Standard Model, as well as in theories which go beyond it. This article is therefore divided into two parts. The first takes s historical approach and shows how the mass problem entered weak interaction theory from the beginning and how it was solved by invoking the Higgs boson. This is followed by a construction of the Glashow-Salam-Weinberg model, again stressing the role played by the Higgs doublet. This part culminates in the Higgs boson discovery of 2012. The second part first discusses the shortcomings of the Standard Model and then touches upon the major theories which try to improve upon it, mostly with profound consequences on the Higgs sector. This is followed up by short descriptions of a number of popular extensions of the Higgs sector, and culminates in a brief introduction to effective field theory approaches to studying the Higgs sector.