June 2022
Physics is always teamwork
“The standard model of particle physics is actually an incredibly good model that can describe nature and the universe almost completely. But only almost – and that's why I deal with this “almost” in my research. That means I develop models that can explain phenomena where the standard model has to fit.
And now things are getting exciting: our experimental colleagues are providing concrete evidence of deviations from the standard model – for example in the measurement of the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon or in certain decays of B mesons. This motivates us to look for expansions to the standard model that can explain these discrepancies and to propose new measurements that can validate or falsify these models. I have been working, for example, on models that include a leptoquark – a new, heavy particle that could explain the current puzzling data in the physics of B mesons.
©: Angelika Stehle
In Mainz, I mainly work with extremely light and weakly interacting particles – Axion-like Particles or ALPs. They occur in many models. I am currently researching the decay of a kaon into a pion and an ALP. The non-observation of this process is one of the strongest constraints on the coupling strength of a light ALP, and I am trying to improve the theoretical prediction of the decay rate.
For me, physics is always teamwork and I find this ideal in the group in Mainz. In my eyes, the constant exchange of theory and experiment is the heart of science. I am particularly fascinated by the constant cycle of question, answer and doubt. We are constantly finding new ways of looking at things in order to ultimately answer very fundamental questions.”
Dr. Claudia Cornella has been a postdoc in the group of Professor Matthias Neubert since October 2021. She studied in Italy and completed her PhD at the University of Zurich. She especially likes the German language, so Mainz already feels like home to her.