Flavour Physics: Old problems and recent hopes

Abstract
Flavour physics represents one of the most puzzling aspect of particle physics and, at present, is also one of the most active experimental frontiers. I present a brief introduction to this field, with special emphasis on the subject of Lepton Flavour Universality (LFU). I review the present hints of LFU violations observed in B decays, discussing their phenomenological interest, and their possible interpretation in terms of physics beyond the Standard Model, both at the EFT level and beyond.

BIO
Gino Isidori is Professor of Theoretical Physics at the Physics Department at the University of Zurich since 2014. He obtained the PhD from the University of Rome La Sapienza in 1996. After that he has been visiting scientist at SLAC (Stanford) in 1997, a CERN Fellow in 2000-2002 and INFN researcher in the Laboratories in Frascati from 2000 till 2014. Since 2021 he is a member of the Science Policy Committee of the CERN Laboratory in Geneva. His research activity focus on the theory and phenomenology of fundamental interactions. He provided seminal contributions in the area of Higgs physics and flavor physics, for instance the demonstration of the metastability of the Standard Model vacuum, the formulation of the hypotheses of Minimal Flavor Violation, and the study of symmetries and symmetry-breaking patterns for theories beyond the Standard Model. Since 2015 his research group at the University of Zurich is playing a leading role in the theoretical interpretation of the B-physics anomalies.

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