What are we, and where do we come from? - Searching for flavour in beauty

Nowadays the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN is the best known high energy physics research facility. However, there are other facilities around the world performing cutting edge high energy physics research. Some of these are the so called flavour factories which have a long tradition in high energy physics. Two of these are currently in operation: BES III in China and Belle II in Japan. Collecting huge amounts of data, the goal of these experiments is to measure free parameters of the standard model of particle physics with very high precision to find deviations from predictions by theory. Such deviations can hint to new physics, and physicists are still searching for the reasons of our very existence as by our best knowledge nothing but light should have remained after the big bang. But testing the standard model is challenging. Huge data sets in the order of tera bytes need to be analysed requiring advanced analysis software and techniques. By now these analyses usually employ machine learning and artificial intelligence in various kinds, while using custom hardware and software, and a world spanning computing infrastructure. All of this is only possible with more than 1000 people working together in a collaboration. Part of the work in high energy physics nowadays would not be possible anymore without the groundbreaking research by this year's Nobel laureates for physics.
In this talk I will present what flavour physics is, the reasons why flavour physics is interesting and why it matters, and which challenges we are facing, using the Belle II experiment as an example. Most of the challenges are not unique to Belle II but to high energy physics in general, so I will also set this into the bigger context and take a look to what is ahead of us in the field of high energy physics.