This award funds the research activities of Professors Maria C. Gonzalez-Garcia, Christopher P. Herzog, Leonardo Rastelli, Martin Rocek, Robert Shrock, Warren Siegel and George Sterman at Stony Brook University.
These research activities span a wide range of topics in theoretical physics, largely based on quantum field theory and string theory. Recent years have seen a renaissance of engagement between theory and experiment in particle physics, with new and exciting data from the Large Hadron Collider, from neutrino observatories and from cosmic ray satellites. These new sources of information about our universe enable theorists to test long-standing ideas against evolving data, and to develop new theoretical methods to guide experiment. At the same time, novel applications of quantum field and string theory have been developed in and beyond particle physics, opening unexpected avenues of research into nuclear physics, condensed matter physics, and quantum information, sometimes with applications in pure mathematics. As active participants in these historic developments, the senior personnel of this award will continue and develop their work in high energy collider physics, neutrino and astroparticle physics, applications of gauge-gravity duality, extensions of the Standard Model, electroweak symmetry breaking, leptogenesis, superstrings, the geometry of supersymmetric gauge theories, and the theory of the strong interactions.
By advancing our knowledge of the laws of nature and by contributing to a better understanding of the physical universe, this research has significant broader impacts and implications for our world view. Indeed, many of the topics under study by the senior participants are frequently discussed in the media, such as the discovery of the Higgs boson, the role of neutrinos in the Universe, string theory and the quark-gluon plasma. The research outlined in this proposal will also serve in the training of graduate students and mentoring of postdoctoral fellows. The faculty on this proposal conduct their research with graduate students, and share their experience and expertise with undergraduates and community members, in and beyond the classroom.
