Search Talks

Despite its extraordinary success, the Standard Model leaves unanswered some of the deepest questions in fundamental physics. In this talk I will discuss how advances in astrophysical observations and precision flavor experiments are creating new opportunities to test proposed solutions to two of these puzzles, the absence of CP violation in the strong interactions and the origin of CP violation in the flavor sector.
In the first part, I will discuss the strong CP problem and the search for one of its most compelling solutions: the QCD axion. I will show that axions produced in the core of a Supernova can convert into gamma rays in the surrounding magnetic field, generating a distinctive transient signal. A future Galactic supernova could therefore provide a unique opportunity to probe the origin of strong CP conservation. I will conclude by discussing a full-sky network of gamma-ray telescopes designed to continuously monitor transient signals, a concept that I proposed and that has since evolved into the GALAXY experiment, currently under construction.
In the second part, I will turn to the origin of CP violation. I will discuss how the remarkable precision achieved in flavor measurements is providing new insights into the structure of quark flavor and CP violation. Focusing on the CKM unitarity triangle, I will highlight intriguing hints consistent with spontaneous CP violation and discuss their possible implications for our understanding of the origin of CP violation in Nature.
Together, these developments illustrate how long-standing puzzles in particle physics are becoming experimentally accessible, raising the prospect that the coming decade may shed light on the origin of some of Nature's most fundamental structures and symmetries.