For more than 25 years the Standard Model of particle physics has withstood the confrontation with experimental results of increasing precision, but this does not imply that the Standard Model can answer all questions about the ultimate constituents of nature. This book presents a critical examination of the latest experimental results and confronts them with the predictions of the Standard Model.

Besides discussions of accelerator results from LEP, HERA and the TEVATRON, attention is paid to the unresolved problems of neutrino oscillations, CP violation, dark matter and cosmology. New theoretical ideas are also analyzed in order to explore possible extensions of the standard model. Realistic plans for future accelerators are presented and their physics potential is discussed, paving the way for the next generation of particle physics experiments.

Preface. Results from LEP 200; E. Fernandez. Anomalous Quartic Couplings at LEP2; W.J. Stirling, A. Werthenbach. Physics with an e+e- Linear Collider at High Luminosity; P.M. Zerwas. Point Splitting and U(1) Gauge Invariance; D. Olivié. Neutrino Oscillations; L. Di Lella. Physics of CP Violation and Rare Decays; T. Nakada. HERA - Experimental Results; R.J. Cashmore. Recent Results and Perspectives at CDF and DØ; H.E. Montgomery. Heavy Gauge Boson Production at Small Transverse Momentum in Hadron-Collisions; A. Kulesza, W.J. Stirling. Recent Developments in the Theory of Strong Interactions: Power Corrections and Renormalons; G.P. Korchemsky. Supersymmetric Extensions of the Standard Model; F. Zwirner. Enhanced Global Symmetries and a Strong Electroweak Sector; Chiral/Conformal Phase Transition; F. Sannino. Supersymmetry and Duality in Field Theory and String Theory; E. Kiritsis. Baryogenesis; M. Shaposhnikov. Cosmology and Dark Matter; P. Salati. Index.