Theoretical Physics

A broad program of research in theoretical physics will address outstanding issues of the fundamental constituents of matter, and the laws and forces through which they interact to build the universe that we observe. Studies will address the crucial, but incompletely understood, quantum-mechanical processes by which quarks and gluons, when they are temporarily freed from protons and neutrons in collisions at high-energy accelerators, evolve back into common particles such as the proton, and into exotic entities such as the recently-discovered top quark and the still sought-after Higgs boson. Other studies will center on the rapidly-developing science of neutrinos, where recent experiments are stimulating theoretical insights, from the dynamics of the sun to the evolution of the universe, and are serving as a link between particle physics and cosmology. Ongoing investigations will also develop superstring theory, the exciting candidate for a unification of gravity, felt by all matter, with the nuclear forces felt by quarks and gluons, the electric and magnetic forces felt by electrons, and weak forces felt by neutrinos. The aim of superstring theory is a complete picture of the dynamic processes, and even the geometry, that make up our world.