Higgs mechanism in the general Two-Higgs-Doublet Model

We first review the standard Higgs mechanism of the standard model. Then, in the second chapter, we motivate the introduction of a second doublet in the theory. In the third chapter, we talk about the reasons to study the most general two Higgs doublet model and introduce the Minkowski formalism introduced by I.P. Ivanov to simplify this problem. Finally, we study the masses of the Higgs bosons in the most general two-Higgs-doublet model (2HDM) in a basis-independent approach. We adapt the recently developed Minkowski-space formalism to this problem and calculate traces of any power of the mass matrix in a compact and reparametrization-invariant form. Our results can be used to gain insight into the dynamics of the scalar sector of the general 2HDM