From B Meson Factories to the Large Hadron Collider

Dr. Zoltan Ligeti
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

In the Standard Model of particle physics, the three generations of quarks and leptons are only distinguishable because they have differing masses. The same process that gives them masses also breaks the symmetry between particles and antiparticles. The Standard Model can account for the observed violations of this symmetry in laboratory experiments, but it cannot explain the asymmetry between the matter and antimatter content of the Universe. Thus, we know that additional interactions exist which differentiate between matter and antimatter. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), scheduled to start taking data later this year, will test the microscopic mechanism that gives rise to the masses of elementary particles, and new particles and interactions may also be discovered. After a brief review of the Standard Model, I discuss what we have learned about the quarks and leptons from the B meson factories and how this kind of information could be combined with discoveries at the LHC to address fundamental questions.

Date:  Thursday, May 15, 2008
Engineering Bldg, Unit 2, Room 138
Time: 3:45 PM
Coffee served in Barkas Lounge @ 3:10 PM