Objective
The Standard Model (SM) of electroweak and strong interactions, supplemented by neutrino masses, provides an extremely successful description of all available experimental data in elementary particle physics. However, the basic origin of electroweak and flavour symmetry breaking remains largely unknown, as well as the mechanism stabilizing the electroweak scale. In the coming years, direct searches at LHC will shed light on electroweak symmetry breaking and probe new physics models with new particles up to the TeV scale. At the same time, an impressive amount of data in the flavour sector will be collected at dedicated experiments such as LHCb, Super B-factories, MEG, NA62 and others. This upcoming experimental information sets the stage for the present project, which aims at: i) providing the theoretical tools needed to fully exploit experimental data in the flavour sector, implementing state-of-the art calculations in a consistent framework within the SM or in any New Physics (NP) model discovered by (or not ruled out by) direct searches; ii) determining the flavour structure of the effective Lagrangian that describes energies up to the TeV scale and above, combining direct searches with flavour data; iii) searching for a fundamental mechanism of flavour symmetry breaking that can justify the flavour structure of TeV-scale physics. This fundamental mechanism should address both the SM flavour puzzle, i.e. the origin of masses and mixings of quarks and leptons, and the NP flavour puzzle, i.e. the mechanism protecting TeV-scale NP from causing large deviations from the SM predictions in the flavour observables we have measured so far. The main support requested to the ERC is for hiring six experienced researchers, the rest of the funds are for optimizing the effectiveness of the team and the research
environment.
Fields of science
Call for proposal
ERC-2011-StG_20101014
See other projects for this call
Funding Scheme
ERC-SG - ERC Starting GrantHost institution
00044 Frascati
Italy