The Standard Model (SM) is a very successful theory that describes Nature at the most fundamental level. However, there are several experimental results which indicate that the SM is incomplete. At CFTP we look for new exciting theories which include supersymmetry, extra dimensions, new particles and interactions, and many others, which are currently under scrutiny at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) [more info here].
Neutrinos were first proposed by Pauli in 1930 as a desperate solution to the continuous double beta decay problem. In the SM, neutrinos are strictly massless particles. However, the observation of neutrino oscillations implies the existence of neutrino masses and mixing. At CFTP we construct new physics models to explain the observed neutrino mass and mixing pattern, and explore further implications of that new physics. [more info here].
In 2012 the SM Higgs boson (the physical manifestation of the Higgs quantum field) has been discovered at the LHC. This was the missing ingredient to complete the experimental observation of all SM particles. Still, at the theory level, there is no fundamental reason to consider the existence of a single Higgs. At CFTP we conduct leading research in multi-Higgs models. [more info here]
The violation of the charge-conjugation/parity (CP) symmetry in kaon decays was first observed in 1964 by Cronin and Fitch. Still, after more than five decades after this discovery, we still don’t know what is the origin of CP violation or if it also occurs in the lepton sector. Many pioneering works which established groundbreaking results on CP violation have been published by CFTP researchers [more info here].
The reason why there exist three families of quarks and leptons with different flavours, and why their mass and mixing patterns look like they do, is still an open question in particle physics. A large number of worldwide experiments are currently dedicated to the physics of flavour. At CFTP we have been responsible for establishing many pioneering results regarding the physics of flavour in both the lepton and quark sectors. [more info here]
Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) is the fundamental theory of strong interactions, formulated in terms of quarks and gluons. However, QCD cannot be solved exactly or even perturbatively at low energies, while its empirical property of confinement does not allow quarks and gluons to be free. Thus, in this regime QCD is treated by studying hadrons, i.e., mesons and baryons, which are observable quark-antiquark and three-quark states, respectively. At CFTP, we develop and apply non-perturbative techniques to describe the spectra, decays, and other properties of known mesons, while also predicting yet to be discovered ones. [more info here]