This award funds the research activities of Professor Ali Chamseddine at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon.
The quest for unification of fundamental physical interactions has been the subject of intensive research for nearly forty years. The stumbling block in this program is the inclusion of the gravitational force among the other three forces mediating the strong, electromagnetic and weak interactions. These latter forces are very well understood in the framework of quantum field theory. In contrast, the gravitational force, because of its extreme weakness, is sizable only for macroscopic objects and is therefore mainly understood only at the classical level. Professor Chamseddine's research focuses on the development of a quantum theory of gravity. As such, research in this area promotes the progress of science in one of its most fundamental directions: the discovery and understanding of new physical laws. Due to its interdisciplinary nature, this work will also contribute to the advancement of knowledge in high-energy physics, gravitational physics, astrophysics, and cosmology. Moreover, this project is envisioned to have significant broader impacts. The American University of Beirut (AUB) plays a very important role in promoting the American educational system in the Middle East. The recent launching of the Ph.D. program in theoretical physics is a step towards the promotion of high-level research in the Middle East, and is attracting students of high caliber.
More technically, Professor Chamseddine will conduct research investigations in supergravity, grand unified models, quantum gravity, string theory and noncommutative geometry. He will pursue the construction of spectral manifolds in noncommutative geometry which reproduce the Standard Model Lagrangian coupled to gravity. In addition, he will study physical applications and dynamical realizations of this quantization scheme.
