Entering the high-precision era of flavour physics through the alliance of lattice simulations, effective field theories and experiment (FLAVIANET)

One of the most profound open questions in particle physics is to understand the pattern of fermion masses and mixings, and the source of fermion replication. This is intimately related to the origin of CP violation, which itself has far reaching consequences being the key to understanding the surprising fact that the universe contains more matter than antimatter. Very general theoretical arguments call for the extension of the Standard Model by new degrees of freedom around the energy scale of 1 TeV, which could generate additional sources of flavour and CP violation. High-precision experiments in flavour physics can indirectly reveal the effects of new particles and interactions through experimental deviations from the Standard Model predictions. Moreover, once new particles are discovered, flavour physics can provide invaluable insight into their couplings and mixing patterns. Interpreting the experimental results in terms of the fundamental dynamics requires precise control of strong interaction effects. This is an area where close collaboration between theory and experiment is essential. Such collaboration is an aim of the network, which puts together the existing European expertise in those theoretical areas which are relevant for data analysis. A multidisciplinary approach, combining lattice technologies, effective field theories, higher-order perturbative tools and Monte Carlo event generators, should allow a more efficient use of the experimental data to improve our current understanding of the flavour dynamics, and possibly guide us towards a more fundamental theory. FLAVIAnet will optimise the training of Europe's young scientific potentials in this area, will coordinate theoretical and experimental research efforts from major European institutes and will create a forum for the scientific exchange among the nodes involved.