On 14 April 2022, Dr. Vincenzo Vagnoni, Director of Research of the National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN), Italy, was invited to the distinguished colloquium of the School of Physics, Peking University. Dr. Vagnoni delivered a talk titled with Flavour physics: seeking new order beyond the Standard Model at the colloquium. Professor Yuanning Gao, Dean of the School of Physics, joined the colloquium via zoom. Professor Zhenwei Yang chaired the colloquium.
Professor Zhenwei Yang chairing the colloquium
Dr. Vagnoni is a renowned high-energy experimentalist. He served as the Physics Coordinator of the Large Hadron Collider Beauty (LHCb) experiment at the Large Hadron Collider at European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in 2016 and 2017. He has been leading author of several key measurements on charge-conjugation and parity (CP) violation. In the talk, Dr. Vagnoni introduced what is the Standard Model of particle physics (SM), several fundamental questions that cannot be answered within the framework of SM, CP violation and its role in explaining the matter-antimatter asymmetry of the universe. He also elucidated what is flavour physics and the unique advantage to probe new physics beyond the SM via flavour physics, and presented some latest results of CP violation and the parameters of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa (CKM) matrix from the LHCb experiment. He also exhibited the observations of pentaquark states and the doubly charmed baryon, among the key LHC results led by the LHCb-China groups, and the implication of these observations to flavour physics. In the end of his talk, Dr. Vagnoni overviewed the status of the LHCb experiment, the plan of the LHCb Upgrade II, and the physics potential in the next twenty years.
Dr. Vincenzo Vagnoni delivering the talk
A fruitful discussion was had between the speaker and the audience from both on site and online, focusing on the potential of new physics discovery via flavour physics, the necessity of CP violation and baryon-number violation to explain the matter-antimatter asymmetry of the Universe, the structure of the CKM matrix, and the synergy between theories and experiments.
On-site audience asking questions to the speaker
In the closing remarks, Professor Gao expressed his thanks to Dr. Vagnoni for his insightful talk. He emphasised the importance of openness and world-wide collaboration, which are indispensable to scientific research amid global challenges. According to Professor Gao, world-wide collaborations of researches, such as those based on the Large Hadron Collider, can not only help expand the boundaries of our knowledge but also enhance mutual understanding between different cultures.
This colloquium was also broadcast live via the KouShare.
KouShare link of the colloquium: https://www.koushare.com/lives/room/074854
Introduction to the speaker:
Vincenzo Vagnoni, Director of Research of the National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN), Italy, has been leading author of several CP violation measurements, notably including the first observation of CP violation in the decays of Bs mesons and the first observation of CP violation in the charm sector. In particular, the latter is considered to be amongst the most important findings of Large Hadron Collider experiments so far. He has been covering several management roles throughout his career, amongst which the responsibility of the High Energy Physics sector at INFN Bologna (ATLAS, CDF, CMS, LHCb and other experiments), the responsibility of all LHCb physics activities (LHCb Physics Coordination), and at present the responsibility for the management of the Italian effort in LHCb (research groups from 14 different institutes with about 150 researchers). Vincenzo Vagnoni is author of more than 700 physics papers and other products, and has been invited speaker at all major conferences, notably including a plenary talk at ICHEP, and summary talks at Beauty and Moriond QCD. Finally, he carries out colourful outreach activities to orient students to scientific and technological matters, with focus on particle physics, but not limited to, and has a strong commitment in the development of international cooperation in science, that is today, more than ever, a fundamental tool to unite humankind, in the respect of cultures and histories of all people in the world.
