Theoretical research on the interface of particle physics and cosmology will be performed over the next five years. Models of particle physics attempting to unify the four fundamental forces necessarily involve energies inaccessible to present day accelerators. In the standard Big Bang model of the early universe, however, extremely high temperatures and densities are present and lend a background for testing unified models. Necessary observational consequences of a unified theory should include, for example, a matter-antimatter asymmetry and the correct abundances of light nuclear isotopes. The resulting goal of such a program is thus to further our understanding of the forces of nature as well as the evolutionary history of the Universe. The work will be carried out by a highly-distinguished young physicist who is one of the new Presidential Young Investigators for 1987.
