This award funds the research activities of Professors Lawrence Hall and Hitoshi Murayama at the University of California, Berkeley.
These two faculty members are pursuing a multi-faceted program of research in theoretical high-energy physics. With the deep experience of PI Murayama on exploiting data and building theoretical frameworks, and the inventiveness of co-PI Hall in opening up new landscapes of physics models beyond the standard model, they aim at uncovering deep secrets that span from the smallest scales of particles and strings to the largest scales of the Universe. The proposed scope includes collider physics, dark matter, neutrinos, quark flavor, phenomenology and theory of supersymmetry, observational cosmology, field theory, string theory, and the multiverse.
This work is also envisioned to have significant broader impacts. Collectively, this research group provides training to students and postdocs who become the next generation of scientists. They also promote diversity by seeking and encouraging participation by women students and scientists. Because the general public is deeply interested in fundamental questions, the Berkeley theory group will also work with QuarkNet teachers to bring the excitement of forefront research to high-school students. Strong ties to the Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe in Tokyo through Murayama's directorship will also bring international connections to students and postdocs.
