Particles, Strings and Gravity in Motion

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This grant funds the research activities of Professors Mina Aganagic, Raphael Bousso, Petr Horava, and Yasunori Nomura at the University of California, Berkeley. This project involves theoretical research at the crossroads of particle physics, quantum gravity, cosmology and string theory, with applications ranging from physics beyond the Standard Model to the multiverse approach in cosmology, the interface of string theory and condensed-matter physics, the nature of space and time in quantum gravity, and mathematical implications of topological strings. Professor Aganagic will investigate applications of string theory in gauge theories and mathematics; Professor Bousso will examine the challenges encountered when extracting predictions from the string multiverse, in particular the measure problem of eternal inflation; Professor Horava will continue to study quantum gravity with anisotropic scaling and its connections to string theory, particle phenomenology, the AdS/CFT correspondence, mathematics of the Ricci flow, and lattice gravity; and Professor Nomura will consider various issues in theoretical particle physics and cosmology relevant to experiments coming in the next decades --- in particular the LHC --- with emphasis on supersymmetry breaking and its mediation, the origin and nature of dark matter, and the conceptual understanding of the multiverse and its implications for TeV-scale physics.This project is also envisioned to have considerable broader impacts. These include the training of students and postdocs who will be involved in this research; dissemination of research results to the general public; involvement in QuarkNet; and participation in lecture series and summer schools that reach under-privileged communities.