In the lecture hall, he right away eliminated the misconception that Color Fulfills Taste might literally concern mixes of colors and tastes. The terms have developed historically in physics and describe homes of elementary particles that result in strong or weak interactions inside an atomic nucleus. Trainees currently discover in middle school that these are 2 of the 4 recognized essential forces. For a long period of time, it was believed that there were only four elementary particles. However phenomena in cosmic radiation or experiments in particle accelerators have revealed that there are eight more. The Higgs boson also holds a special position: long predicted through theoretical estimations, it was not really determined till 2012.
It is now clear, nevertheless, that existing knowledge remains insufficient which the so‑called Basic Model of physics must be expanded. In astrophysics, for example, measurements yield values that can not be described by noticeable matter and indicate “dark matter,” which could include an unknown elementary particle such as the axion. In collisions in accelerators, exotic states are observed that appear to consist not of the normal three, however of four or five elementary particles. And it is still not comprehended why the Big Bang did not produce equal amounts of matter and antimatter, but obviously led to a surplus of matter.
These ideas are what the new Cluster of Excellence Color Meets Flavor intends to pursue. In the near future, however, no experiment bigger than the Big Hadron Collider at CERN– known as the “world maker,” located 100 meters underground and 27 km long– will be offered. To press even more into the unknown, theory and experiment need to therefore be closely intertwined. This needs highly precise measurements at numerous devices, which are then evaluated and integrated using calculations carried out on high‑performance supercomputers. The Cluster of Excellence take advantage of the complementary know-how of its sites, access to different large‑scale experiments, and Europe’s fastest supercomputer, JUPITER in Jülich.
The Cluster of Excellence has set itself the objective of including the public in the fundamental concerns of physics and its discoveries. Programs such as “Rent a Prof” for schools, amusing physics shows in uncommon places, or accounts on social‑media platforms are part of the effort. At Dortmund’s 2024 Science Night, even an ice‑cream stand was used to playfully highlight the structure of matter: a scoop of ice cream represented a quark with various “flavors,” so that a “proton,” for instance, consisted of two scoops of vanilla (“up quark”) and one scoop of raspberry (“down quark”). Teacher Alexander Lenz’s idea for all fans of “Zwischen Brötchen und Borussia”: at the Science Night 2026 in September, one ought to ask about the exotic states and order a “pentaquark” for fivefold satisfaction.
About the Color Meets Flavor Team
The founding members of Cluster of Excellence 3107 include 25 researchers from the Universities of Bonn, Dortmund, and Siegen, along with Forschungszentrum Jülich. The spokesperson is Teacher Jochen Dingfelder from Bonn. The founding members from TU Dortmund University are: Professor Johannes Albrecht (site spokesperson), Dr. Chris Malena Delitzsch, Professor Gudrun Hiller, Professor Kevin Kröninger, and Professor Julia Vogel. Funding for the first phase runs from 2026 to 2032.
About the „ Color Fulfills Taste” group
See the presentation of Prof. Alexander Lenz
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