UConn Physics Colloquium

How to Weigh a Quark

Quark masses are fundamental parameters of the standard model, which is another way of saying we can't yet explain them.  They vary over almost five orders of magnitude, and are not even precisely known.  To test any theory which predicts them, or maybe to inspire such a theory, we would like to know these masses.    I will describe a program of lattice QCD computations where we realte masses of the three light quarks to masses of pions and kaons, and explain the series of steps needed to extract these parameters. 

It is then up to the audience to find the theory that explains these numbers.