This award supports research on the following aspects of string theory: (1) The astrophysics of compact objects in string theory including the possibility of compact objects in string theory rotating faster than allowed by black holes in general relativity; (2) Testing the principles of holography, microstates of gravity, and gauge-gravity correspondence in the Godel universe model and in string cosmology in general ; (3) Investigations of noncritical M-theory, if defined in terms of a double-scaled nonrelativistic Fermi liquid in 2 + 1 dimensions, in order to understand the landscape of all vacua in string/M-theory and time-dependend solutions; (4) Systematic research of the interface between string theory and nonrelativistic condensed matter theory; (5) Analyzing tachyons in string theories and their relationship to the description of the decay of the nonsupersymmetric spacetimes to nothing.
Results from this research program could have profound implications for better understanding of the fundamental theory of Nature and its possible relations to and implications for other theoretical and experimental areas of physics, and can be fully expected to have a broader impact on the wide scientific community as well as the general public. The research will be conducted in full collaboration with other members of the string and particle theory group at UC Berkeley, and its students and postdocs, in the context of the Berkeley Center for Theoretical Physics, and the Particle Theory group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
