The “Marcello Conversi” Award, which is awarded annually by the INFN National Scientific Commission 1 for the two best doctoral theses in high energy physics, was awarded this year to Dr. Federico Betti (University of Bologna and INFN Section from Bologna). INFN recalls with this Award the figure of the distinguished physicist Marcello Conversi, who passed away 32 years ago, who with Ettore Pancini and Oreste Piccioni carried out a fundamental experiment in 1945 which is considered a milestone in the history of high energy physics, with which the nature of the muon was determined for the first time.
Dr. Betti received the prestigious Prize for a thesis entitled “CP violation in D0 → K + K- and D0 → π + π- decays and lepton-flavor universality test with the decay B0 → D * ντ”. thesis led to the first observation of the violation of the matter-antimatter symmetry (CP symmetry in technical jargon) with the charm quark, using the data of the LHCb experiment at CERN in Geneva. In particular, the asymmetry was observed in decays of particles containing a charm quark comparing them with the analogous decays of the respective antiparticles containing an anticharm quark The data analysis was carried out within the activities of the LHCb group of the INFN Section of Bologna and announced through press releases from CERN and the ‘INFN in March 2019. This measure opens the way in search of possible new processes of violation of CP symmetry in charm particles, with the aim of highlighting new fe nomenes that go beyond the current Standard Model of elementary particles.
As soon as the health emergency permits, Dr. Betti will have to present his work at a meeting of the National Scientific Commission 1.
In the photo, Dr. Betti – the top five from the left – toasts after his speech at the Moriond Electroweak 2019 conference, along with other physicists present at the event (credits L. Fayard).