Historical and personal recollections of Guido Altarelli

TL;DR

This paper offers a scientific biography of Guido Altarelli, highlighting his key contributions, especially his work on the $q^2$ evolution of effective quark distributions, with historical context and analysis.

Contribution

It provides a detailed historical and scientific analysis of Altarelli's seminal work on quark distribution evolution, emphasizing its significance and success.

Findings

Historical perspective on Altarelli's work

In-depth analysis of $q^2$ evolution paper

Insights into the theoretical understanding of the time

Abstract

In this paper I will present a short scientific biography of Guido Altarelli, briefly describing some of his most important seminal works. I will analyze in great details the paper of the $q^2$ evolution of the effective quark distribution: I will put this paper in a historical perspective, describing our theoretical understanding at that time and the reasons why the paper was so successful.