PhD defence Carolina da Silva Bolognani

Keywords: Particle physics, Flavour physics, Strong interaction, Quarks

"The colours of flavour"

How do colours affect flavour?

Carolina da Silva Bolognani investigated how fundamental forces of nature influence one another. These forces shape much of what exists in the universe, including matter and the particles that compose it. However, the precise way these forces work together remains a puzzle that physicists are striving to unravel.

Two fundamental forces, the weak force and the strong force, are specially important to some of the smallest subatomic particles: the quarks. The weak force allows quarks to change type (there are six types, or "flavours"). The strong force binds quarks tightly together, confining them in new particles called hadrons, such as protons and neutrons. To explain how quarks combine, physicists developed the concept of "colour" charge, a property that determines which combinations of quarks can bind.

Carolina’s research, The Colours of Flavour, explores how, due to the weak and strong force, colour affects changes in quark flavour. She refined theoretical methods to describe how the strong force shapes the weak decays of hadrons. By improving on the theory and combining it with precise experimental data, Carolina’s work sharpens our determination of fundamental constants that govern how particles interact and deepens our understanding of the differences between matter and antimatter, helping to explain why our universe exists in its current form.

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