Monday, December 18, 2017, 16:00
OSGA/EG06
Ulrich Nierste, Karlsruher Institut für Technologie
Abstract:
The elementary matter particles (fermions) which build our surrounding
world are up quark, down quark, and electron. Together with the electron
neutrino they form the first fermion generation. All these particles
have two copies with identical charges but different masses; these
partners form the second and third fermion generation. The heavier
particles of the second and third generations are unstable, because they
can decay into the lighter ones. For example, the muon, which is a
heavier copy of the electron, can decay into an electron and two (almost
massless) neutrinos. Flavour physics is the field studying such
transitions between fermions of different generations. These transitions
can be studied with high precision at dedicated colliders producing
fermions of the second or third generation in large numbers. Flavour
physics is very sensitive to effects of new laws of physics which go
beyond the established Standard Model of Elementary Particles. In recent
years a few flavour anomalies have been established, meaning that the
observed decay patterns differ from their Standard-Model predictions.
After reviewing the highlights of 60 years of flavour physics I discuss
possible explanations of the flavour anomalies in terms of new physics
and give an outlook on possible future discoveries, at PSI and
elsewhere.