String Theory and Quantum Field Theory: From the Planck Scale to the Hubble Scale

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This award funds the research activities of Professors Jacques Distler, Willy Fischler, Can Kilic, Sonia Paban and Steven Weinberg at the University of Texas at Austin.The research of Professors Distler, Fischler, Kilic, Paban, and Weinberg is focused on the discovery and understanding of the laws that govern the universe at the most fundamental level. As such, this research utilizes diverse and multi-pronged approaches in achieving this mission. These include studying the extensions to the Standard Model which governs the behavior of the elementary particles, and the associated experimental signatures of such extensions. These also include the study of early-universe cosmology and present-day astrophysics, and the exploration of the physics of black holes which may shed light on how a quantum theory of gravity may be formulated. Finally, these also include studies in relativistic quantum field theory (which is the mathematical language in which theories of the elementary particles are expressed) as well as string theory (which aims to unify all of the different particles and forces in nature). Since the early days of modern physics, the United States has led the effort in the discovery of these fundamental laws. Further research in this direction is therefore in the national interest, and Professors Distler, Fischler, Kilic, Paban, and Weinberg are committed to making further research contributions in these directions. In addition, this research will involve graduate students and postdoctoral researchers and thereby provide scientific training that should serve these junior scientists well throughout their careers both within and outside of academia. Finally, these professors make science outreach a priority, and regularly deliver public lectures, in person as well as over the internet. They also write books and articles for general audiences in order to increase science literacy and appreciation.Many different areas of research are to be investigated as part of this research project. Professor Distler will continue his exploration of 4D N=2 superconformal field theories and their properties, including the relation to 2D Vertex Operator Algebras. He will extend some of the lessons learned to N=1 SCFTs and he will visit afresh certain aspects of the theory of orientifolds. Professor Fischler will continue to work with his students on quantum information in quantum gravity (using gauge-gravity duality) and the use of the quantum Hall effect in the context of quantum computation. Professor Fischler and his students are also involved in discovering possibly new observable effects in jet emissions by black holes using the gauge-gravity connection. Professor Kilic will continue to work on dark-matter models that have uncommon experimental signatures or that can address open questions related to astrophysical observations; he will also study techniques in collider searches designed to improve sensitivity in the case of low signal statistics and exotic final states, and he will explore how the solution to the naturalness puzzle can be experimentally probed. Professor Paban will continue to work on early-universe physics. She will explore the robustness of inflation in multifield models and the experimental signatures of models of multifield inflation compatible with string theory. Finally, Professor Weinberg will continue his work in astrophysics, and will investigate ideas that may lead to further research in elementary-particle theory.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.