Higgs and Wilson lines in field and string theory

This is a short review on basics of the use of the Wilson line to break gauge symmetry in theories with compact extra dimensions. We show how the computation of the one-loop effective field theory leads to a finite result. We then explain the realization of this breaking and the effective potential computation in an open string theory framework with D-branes. To cite this article: K. Benakli, C. R. Physique 8 (2007).