This proposal requests continuing support for a program of research aimed at the unification of quantum mechanics and gravity. The program follows two distinct approaches: string theory and M-theory on the one hand; and noncommutative geometry on the other. The string theory approach involves such areas as supersymmetry, black holes, and branes, and the Co-PI involved in this effort is an acknowledged expert in the study of black holes. The noncommutative geometry approach considers the possibility that at extremely small, sub-Planckian distances space becomes quantized; the PI is one of the early pioneers of this approach and contributed to the foundations of it.
The broader impacts of this work lie in the area of education and research development in an under-developed region of the world, and they may have important consequences for related fields such as particle physics phenomenology and cosmology.
