This CAREER award funds the research activities of Professor Luis Anchordoqui at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee.
After nearly twenty years of planning and construction, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is now the highest-energy particle collider in the world. Data from the LHC is likely to lead to nothing less than a new Standard Model for the next generation of particle physicists, describing the fundamental building blocks of matter and their interactions at an even higher energy scale. In his research, Professor Anchordoqui aims to develop methods by which a certain class of new theories beyond the Standard Model might be tested at the LHC. This class of new theories includes those in which the myriad of particle types in the Standard Model is replaced by a single fundamental building block: a "string." One critical component of Anchordoqui's work is to explore the various properties of string resonances related to experimental searches for new physics at the LHC. He is also involved in complementary cosmological and astrophysical observations, which aid his search for string theory's smoking gun and help unravel the mysteries of the Universe's unseen dimensions.
This project is also envisioned to have significant broader impacts. Professor Anchordoqui will involve graduate students and postdocs in his research, and thereby provide critical training to junior physicists beginning research in this field. He also intends to give public lectures on his research results and develop new course curricula based on results from the LHC.
