INTRODUCTION TO COLLIDER PHYSICS

This is a set of four lectures presented at the Theoretical Advanced Study Institute (TASI-09) in June 2009. The goal of the lectures is to introduce students to some of the basic ideas and tools required for theoretical analysis of collider data. Several examples of Standard Model processes at electron-positron and hadron colliders are considered to illustrate these ideas. In addition, a general strategy for formulating searches for physics beyond the Standard Model is outlined. The lectures conclude with a brief survey of recent, ongoing and future searches for the Higgs boson and supersymmetric particles.