DR. ALAKABHA DATTA
Department of Physics
University of Toronto
60 St. George St
Toronto, ON  M5S 1A7
 
 

TRYING TO SOLVE THE FLAVOUR PUZZLE

The Standard model of particle physics describes the interaction of quarks and leptons which are the fundamental building blocks of matter. The quarks and leptons come in six flavours and can be classified into three generations. For reasons not known and not explained by the Standard model, the quarks and leptons of different generations can mix, leading to very interesting flavour changing effects including the violation of CP symmetry. I will describe how we are trying to understand the mixing in the quark sector and find clues to new physics that must lie beyond the Standard model. I will also discuss the puzzles in lepton mixing and point out that the underlying physics of quark and lepton mixing may well be the same. With intense theoretical and experimental work that is now focussed on understanding quark and lepton mixing, we are on the way to solving the flavour puzzle.
 

Coffee will be available in the Physics Common Room prior to the Colloquium