Theoretical Physics

理论物理

• 批准号: 1606531
• 负责人: Edward Witten
• 金额: $ 109.9万
• 依托单位: Institute For Advanced Study
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-09-01 至 2019-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1606531&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Theoretical; Physics

This award funds the research activities of Professors Edward Witten and Peter Goddard and a group of postdoctoral fellows at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.The project is devoted to the study of elementary particle physics, including its connections to other areas of study ranging from astrophysics and cosmology to condensed matter physics and geometry. Current and planned work of the researchers supported by this grant covers a very wide range of topics, including the connections between gauge theory (the modern language of elementary particle physics), string theory (a speculative proposal for unifying the fundamental forces of nature), and geometry. These researchers will also study the possibilities for new models of particle physics that might be relevant at current and future particle accelerators; new methods of computing and studying the ways in which elementary particles scatter off each other; new experimental hints of the cosmic dark matter which makes up most of the matter in the universe; and more. Research in these areas thus advances the national interest by promoting the progress of science in one of its most fundamental directions: the discovery and understanding of new physical laws. The postdoctoral fellows supported by this project will also gain experience working at a high level on these exciting scientific problems, which have all attracted great interest nationally and internationally. More technically, Edward Witten has been working most recently on applications of quantum field theory to boundary states of topological insulators and superconductors, and is also currently developing new interests in classical General Relativity, with a view toward implications for quantum theory. Peter Goddard's focus is on new approaches to scattering amplitudes in gauge theory and gravity. The postdoctoral fellows supported by this project have a wide range of interests and work with each other on frontier topics in theoretical high-energy physics as well as with Professors Witten and Goddard and other local faculty.

该奖项资助爱德华维滕教授和彼得戈达德教授以及普林斯顿高等研究院的一批博士后研究员的研究活动。该项目致力于基本粒子物理学的研究，包括其与天体物理学和宇宙学到凝聚态物理学和几何学等其他研究领域的联系。 由该资助支持的研究人员目前和计划的工作涵盖了非常广泛的主题，包括规范理论（基本粒子物理学的现代语言），弦理论（统一自然基本力的推测性建议）和几何之间的联系。 这些研究人员还将研究可能与当前和未来粒子加速器相关的粒子物理学新模型的可能性;计算和研究基本粒子相互散射方式的新方法;宇宙暗物质的新实验提示，它构成了宇宙中大部分物质;等等。 因此，这些领域的研究通过促进科学在其最基本的方向之一的进步来促进国家利益： 发现和理解新的物理定律。 该项目支持的博士后研究员也将获得在这些令人兴奋的科学问题上的高水平工作经验，这些问题在国内和国际上都引起了极大的兴趣。从技术上讲，爱德华维滕最近一直致力于量子场论在拓扑绝缘体和超导体边界态上的应用，目前也在对经典广义相对论产生新的兴趣，以期对量子理论产生影响。 彼得戈达德的重点是在规范理论和引力散射振幅的新方法。 该项目支持的博士后研究员有广泛的兴趣，并在理论高能物理的前沿课题上相互合作，以及与维滕教授和戈达德和其他当地教师合作。