Descrizione del progetto
Lo studio del problema del sapore potrebbe offrire una nuova finestra alle interazioni fondamentali
Un grande enigma della fisica teorica consiste nella scoperta dei motivi per cui osserviamo tre famiglie di particelle elementari, apparentemente identiche, ma che differiscono nella massa. Il progetto FLAY, finanziato dall’UE, si propone gettare ulteriore luce su queste particelle fondamentali che hanno diversi sapori. I ricercatori combineranno un approccio dal basso verso l’alto a dati di fisica dei sapori con approcci dall’alto verso il basso all’origine delle gerarchie di sapori. Prendendo in considerazione gli osservabili a bassa e alta energia, i dati sperimentali su quark e leptoni potrebbero suggerire deviazioni dalle previsioni del modello standard, ampliando l’attuale paradigma delle interazioni fondamentali.
Obiettivo
Recent experimental results in flavor physics exhibit deviations from the Standard Model predictions that are growing with time, both as far as statistical significance and as far as internal consistency. Understanding the origin of this phenomenon, the so-called “flavor anomalies”, is of paramount importance for a deeper understanding of fundamental interactions. As recently shown by the PI and collaborators, this phenomenon is likely to be intimately related to the long-standing “flavor problem”, or the origin of the hierarchical pattern of quark and lepton mass matrices observed in Nature. The goal of this project is to shed light on both these issues, providing a solution to old and recent puzzles in flavor physics. We propose to address these questions via an original bottom-up approach, based on Effective Field Theory methods and simplified models, combined with new top-down ideas about the ultraviolet completion of the Standard Model. On the phenomenological side, the proposed bottom-up approach will allow us to exploit with the highest accuracy all the available and expected experimental data. It will allow us to take into account both low- and high-energy observables, as well as both quark and lepton sectors. These results will constitute the basis for the theoretical investigation of a new class of Standard Model extensions not considered so far. The latter are based on new ideas, such as flavor non-universal gauge interactions, that imply a change of paradigm in theoretical high-energy physics: the origin of the flavor hierarchies plays a central role in revealing the ultraviolet completion of the Standard Model. Combining a bottom-up approach to flavor-physics data with top-down ideas on the origin of the flavor hierarchies, this project has the potential to lead to a major advancement in fundamental physics.
Campo scientifico
Parole chiave
Programma(i)
Argomento(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
ERC-ADG - Advanced GrantIstituzione ospitante
8006 Zurich
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