M-Theory, Cosmology and Quantum Field Theory

我们的STFC研究计划研究描述物质，相互作用和时空的基础物理学，重点是M理论，量子场论和宇宙学的相互关联的核心概念。M理论包含弦理论和超引力理论，是我们统一爱因斯坦广义相对论和粒子物理标准模型的核心方法。M理论最显著的特点之一是它结合了非微扰杨-米尔斯理论在弦和膜方面的双重描述，导致黑洞和量子场论之间的深刻联系，也导致了对强耦合现象（如夸克禁闭）的新见解。这些联系将继续在我们的研究中发挥核心作用，以多种不同的方式进行探索，包括使用超对称性，新颖的几何结构，新的代数结构和精确可积的量子场论。最终目标是确定M理论的基本自由度，这将对理解量子引力以及最终的粒子物理现象学产生深远的影响。黑洞是探索这些想法的一个重要阶段，并且，使用分析和数值技术，我们将继续构建和研究具有新特性的黑洞解，这些新特性对理解熵的起源和对偶量子场论的普适性质具有重要意义。宇宙学仍然是一个充满活力的研究领域，受到大量新数据的推动，特别是通过引力波观测的新领域。宇宙的结构和起源的关键线索可以在宇宙微波背景辐射的细节中找到。这些问题提供了一个重点，我们的活动，通过分析数据和研究宇宙学的影响希格斯场和扩展的标准模型的粒子物理学在暴胀的情况下。宇宙学分析的核心是有效场论的研究。我们工作的一个关键要素是使用量子一致性和因果关系等基本条件来对有效理论的允许形式施加重要约束，并对早期宇宙学，黑洞物理学和暗能量产生影响。这包括爱因斯坦引力被修改的可能性，例如引力子有质量。更一般地说，我们的工作扩展到研究如何在宇宙学数据上提取量子引力的一般印记，例如时空的基本离散性。贯穿这项研究的一个统一主题是从新的重力波测量中可以提取哪些信息，以及这对重力的性质和宇宙如何演化意味着什么。

Our STFC research programme investigates the fundamental physics that describes matter, interactions and spacetime, focusing on the interrelated core concepts of M-theory, quantum field theory and cosmology. M-theory, which subsumes string theory and supergravity theory, is our central approach to unifying Einstein's theory of General Relativity with the Standard Model of particle physics. One of the most remarkable features of M-theory is that it incorporates dual descriptions of non-perturbative Yang-Mills theories in terms of strings and branes, leading to profound connections between black holes and quantum field theory and also to new insights into strong coupling phenomena such as quark confinement. These connections will continue play a central role in our research, explored in a number of different ways, including using supersymmetry, novel geometric constructions, new algebraic structures and exactly integrable quantum field theory. An ultimate goal is to determine the fundamental degrees of freedom of M-theory which would have profound implications for understanding quantum gravity as well as ultimately particle physics phenomenology. Black holes are a vital stage for exploring these ideas, and, using both analytical and numerical techniques, we will continue to construct and study black-hole solutions with novel properties that have important implications for understanding the origin of entropy and universal properties of the dual quantum field theories. Cosmology continues to be a highly vibrant area of study driven by a wealth of new data, in particular via the new field of gravitational waves observations. Key clues to the structure and the origin of the universe are to be found in the details of the cosmic microwave background. These questions provide one focus of our activities both through analysing data and by studying the cosmological implications of the Higgs field and extensions of the Standard Model of particle physics in inflationary scenarios. Central to the analysis of cosmology is the study of effective field theories. A key element of our work is to use fundamental conditions such as quantum consistency and causality to put important constraints of the allowed form of the effective theory, with implications for early-time cosmology, black-hole physics and dark energy. This includes the possibility that Einstein gravity is modified, for instance where the graviton has a mass. More generally our work extends to looking at how to extract general imprints of quantum gravity, such as fundamental discreteness of spacetime, on cosmological data. A unifying theme throughout this research is what information can be extracted from new gravity wave measurements and what this implies about the nature of gravity and how the universe evolved.