Raoul Gatto and Bruno Touschek's joint legacy in the rise of electron-positron physics

Abstract

Raoul Gatto and Bruno Touschek's collaboration in the establishment of electron positron colliders as a fundamental discovery tool in particle physics will be illustrated. In particular, we will tell the little-known story of how Gatto and Touschek's pioneering vision combined to provide the theoretical foundations for AdA, the first matter-antimatter collider, and how their friendship with Wolfgang Pauli and Gerhard L\"uders was crucial to their understanding of the CPT theorem, the basis for AdA's success. We will see how these two exceptional scientists shaped physics between Rome and Frascati, from the proposal to build AdA and, soon after in 1961, the larger machine ADONE, to the discovery of the $J/\Psi$ particle in 1974. We will also highlight Gatto and Touschek's contribution in mentoring an extraordinary cohort of students and collaborators whose work contributed to the renaissance of Italian theoretical physics after the Second World War and to the establishment of the Standard Model of particle physics.