Topics in String Theory

该奖项资助加州大学洛杉矶分校的Eric D'Hoker、Michael Gutperle和Per Kraus教授的研究活动。弦理论仍然是基本粒子标准模型与广义相对论（引力理论）在符合量子力学定律的框架内统一的最有希望的候选者。在过去的几十年里，弦理论的发展催生了物理学和数学许多领域的进步，从而通过促进科学在其最基本的方向之一的进步来服务于国家利益：发现和理解新的物理定律。D'Hoker、Gutperle和Kraus教授的目标是通过探索新的对称原理、与纯数学的新联系，以及在弦理论的前沿进行复杂的计算，加深对弦理论、量子引力和黑洞物理的理解。该项目还将产生更广泛的重大影响。弦理论继续吸引和激励着物理学领域一些最聪明的研究生和博士后，D'Hoker、Gutperle和Kraus教授将让研究生和博士后参与他们的研究，同时积极指导他们成为专业科学家。与南加州其他大学组织的研讨会将有助于向更广泛的研究人员社区介绍加州大学洛杉矶分校的初级物理学家，而在访问当地初中和高中期间与学生的互动将促进公众宣传。在更技术性的层面上，D'Hoker教授继续推进超弦微扰理论的课题，将其应用于超重力的低能量有效相互作用，以及对弦振幅的高能行为的影响。Gutperle教授将研究五维超共形场理论，以及利用AdS/CFT对应的共形场理论中的畴壁、曲面和线算子。Kraus教授将研究不同维度的共形场理论，重点是通过AdS/CFT对应来阐明对量子引力有影响的结构。D'Hoker， Gutperle和Kraus教授还将使用共形自举方法研究AdS3上与IIB型弦理论全息对偶的共形场论的性质。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award funds the research activities of Professors Eric D'Hoker, Michael Gutperle, and Per Kraus at the University of California, Los Angeles. String theory remains the most promising candidate for the unification of the Standard Model of elementary particles with General Relativity, the theory of gravitational forces, in a framework consistent with the laws of Quantum Mechanics. Developments in string theory over the past decades have spawned progress in many areas of physics and mathematics, thereby serving the national interest by promoting the progress of science in one of its most fundamental directions: the discovery and understanding of new physical laws. Professors D'Hoker, Gutperle, and Kraus aim to deepen the understanding of string theory, quantum gravity, and black-hole physics by exploring new symmetry principles, new connections with pure mathematics, and by performing sophisticated calculations at the frontier of string theory. This project will also have significant broader impacts. String theory continues to attract and inspire some of the brightest graduate students and postdocs in physics, and Professors D'Hoker, Gutperle, and Kraus will involve graduate students and postdocs in their research while actively mentoring them on their path to becoming professional scientists. Workshops organized with other universities in Southern California will serve to introduce junior physicists at UCLA to the broader community of researchers, while interactions with students during visits to local middle and high schools will promote public outreach. At a more technical level, Professor D'Hoker continues to advance the subject of superstring perturbation theory, its applications to the low-energy effective interactions of supergravity, and its implications for the high-energy behavior of string amplitudes. Professor Gutperle will investigate five-dimensional super-conformal field theories, as well as domain wall, surface, and line operators in conformal field theories utilizing the AdS/CFT correspondence. Professor Kraus will study conformal field theories in various dimensions, with an emphasis on elucidating structures that have implications for quantum gravity via the AdS/CFT correspondence. Professors D'Hoker, Gutperle, and Kraus will also use conformal-bootstrap methods to study the properties of the conformal field theory which is holographically dual to Type IIB string theory on AdS3.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.