Color Meets Flavor cluster of excellence launched
Since January 1, the 70 clusters of excellence that were able to prevail against tough competition last May have been funded. Among them is the new research network "Color Meets Flavor", in which physicists from TU Dortmund University are involved. Together with colleagues from the University of Bonn, the University of Siegen and Forschungszentrum Jülich, they want to investigate the interaction of elementary particles in more detail over the next seven years and also communicate to the public the exciting questions that basic research is pursuing. Prof. Alexander Lenz, site spokesperson from Siegen, therefore presented the new project just three weeks after its launch in Dortmund's well-known lecture series "Zwischen Brötchen und Borussia".
In the lecture hall, he immediately dispelled the misconception that "Color meets Flavor" could literally be about color and flavor combinations. The terms have evolved historically in physics and describe properties of elementary particles that lead to strong or weak interactions inside an atomic nucleus. Even in middle school, pupils learn that these are two of the four known fundamental forces. For a long time, it was believed that there were only four elementary particles. However, phenomena in cosmic radiation and experiments in particle accelerators have proven that there are eight more. The Higgs boson, which has long been suspected by theoretical calculations but was only actually measured in 2012, also has a special status.
Expanding the standard model of physics
However, it has been proven that current knowledge is still incomplete and that the so-called standard model of physics needs to be expanded. In astrophysics, for example, values are measured that cannot be explained by visible matter and point to "dark matter", which could consist of an unknown elementary particle such as the axion. In collisions in accelerators, on the other hand, exotic states are observed that do not appear to consist of three elementary particles as usual, but of four or five. And it is still not possible to explain why, after the Big Bang, there was not an equal amount of matter and antimatter, but apparently an excess of matter.
The new Cluster of Excellence "Color Meets Flavor" wants to investigate these clues. In the near future, however, no larger experiment will be available than the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, known as the "world machine", which lies 100 meters deep underground and is 27 km long. In order to penetrate further into the unknown, theory and experiment must therefore be closely interlinked. This requires high-precision measurements on a wide variety of machines, which are analyzed and combined using calculations with high-performance supercomputers. The Cluster of Excellence benefits from the complementary expertise of the locations, access to various large-scale experiments and Europe's fastest supercomputer, JUPITER in Jülich.
The Cluster of Excellence aims to involve the public in the fundamental questions of physics and its discoveries. Programs such as "Rent a Prof" for schools, entertaining physics shows at unusual locations and accounts on social media platforms are all part of the program. At the Dortmund Knowledge Night 2024, an ice cream stand was also used to playfully convey the structure of matter: a scoop of ice cream symbolized a quark with different flavours, so that a "proton", for example, came as two vanilla ("up quark") and one raspberry ("down quark"). Prof. Alexander Lenz's tip for all fans of "bread rolls and Borussia": at Science Night 2026 in September, you should ask about the exotic conditions and order a "Penta-Quark" for five times the pleasure.
About the Color Meets Flavor team
The founding members of the Cluster of Excellence 3107 include 25 scientists from the Universities of Bonn, Dortmund and Siegen as well as Forschungszentrum Jülich. The spokesperson is Prof. Jochen Dingfelder from Bonn. The founding members from TU Dortmund University are Prof. Johannes Albrecht (site spokesperson), Dr. Chris Malena Delitzsch, Prof. Gudrun Hiller, Prof. Kevin Kröninger and Prof. Julia Vogel. Funding for the first phase runs from 2026 to 2032.
To the lecture by Prof. Alexander Lenz
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