Roberto D. Peccei

Biography

Roberto Peccei was born in Italy in 1942. He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), then worked at Stanford University, the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he became dean of the physics department and vice-chancellor for research. He made significant contributions to the phenomenology of elementary particle physics. He was a scientific administrator for major projects.

Key discoveries

• Peccei–Quinn symmetry (1977) – introduction of a global U(1) symmetry
• the spontaneous breaking of which leads to the vanishing of the QCD θ-parameter and explains the absence of CP violation in the strong interaction. Axion
• arising as a pseudo-Goldstone boson
• naturally becomes a candidate for cold dark matter.