Toshihide Maskawa

Toshihide Maskawa was a Japanese theoretical physicist who shared the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics for explaining how the quark model could accommodate CP violation.

Cabibbo–Kobayashi–Maskawa matrix: A unitary matrix describing how quark flavors mix in weak interactions. Maskawa and Makoto Kobayashi showed that its complex phase permits CP violation with six quark flavors.
Makoto Kobayashi: A Japanese theoretical physicist who shared the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics with Toshihide Maskawa. Kobayashi coauthored the paper that introduced their explanation of CP violation.
Tetsuo Nakano: A Japanese theoretical physicist known for work on particle symmetries and the quark model. Nakano was Maskawa's doctoral adviser at Nagoya University.
Bottom quark: A third-generation quark discovered in 1977, with electric charge −1/3. Its discovery supplied one of the heavy quarks required by the three-generation framework.
CP violation: A difference between physical processes and their combined charge-conjugate and parity-reversed counterparts. The phenomenon the Kobayashi–Maskawa theory explained within the quark model.
Cabibbo angle: A parameter describing mixing between down and strange quarks in weak interactions. Nicola Cabibbo's two-generation mixing model set the stage for the Kobayashi–Maskawa extension.
Yoichiro Nambu: A Japanese-American theoretical physicist who made foundational contributions to particle physics and spontaneous symmetry breaking. Nambu's work on particle symmetries helped shape the theoretical environment in which Maskawa trained.
Top quark: A third-generation quark discovered at Fermilab in 1995, with electric charge +2/3. Its eventual discovery completed the six-quark structure underlying the theory.
Quark: An elementary particle that combines with other quarks to form hadrons such as protons and neutrons. The six-flavor quark framework made Maskawa's explanation possible.
Cronin–Fitch experiment: The 1964 experiment that demonstrated CP violation in neutral kaon decays. Its discovery created the puzzle Kobayashi and Maskawa sought to explain.

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Nagoya UniversityRelated: Maskawa conducted research at Nagoya University alongside work that led to the Kobayashi–Maskawa theory.