Theoretical Physics

一个广泛的理论物理研究计划将解决物质的基本成分以及它们相互作用以建立我们观察的宇宙的悬而未决的问题。研究将解决关键的、但尚未完全理解的量子力学过程，即夸克和胶子在高能加速器的碰撞中暂时脱离质子和中子后，演化回普通粒子(如质子)，并演化成奇异实体，如最近发现的顶夸克和仍然受到追捧的希格斯玻色子。其他研究将集中在快速发展的中微子科学上，最近的实验正在激发理论洞察力，从太阳的动力学到宇宙的演化，并将成为粒子物理学和宇宙学之间的纽带。正在进行的研究还将发展超弦理论，这是所有物质都能感受到的引力统一的令人兴奋的候选者，夸克和胶子感受到的核力，电子感受到的电力和磁力，以及中微子感受到的弱力。超弦理论的目的是完整地描绘构成我们世界的动态过程，甚至是几何图形。

A broad program of research in theoretical physics willaddress outstanding issues of the fundamentalconstituents of matter, and the laws and forces through which they interact to build the universe that we observe. Studies will address the crucial, but incompletely understood, quantum-mechanical processes by which quarks and gluons, when they are temporarily freed from protons and neutrons in collisions at high-energy accelerators, evolve back into common particles such as the proton, and into exotic entities such as the recently-discovered top quark and the still sought-after Higgs boson. Other studies will center on the rapidly-developing science of neutrinos, where recent experiments are stimulating theoretical insights, from the dynamics of the sun to the evolution ofthe universe, and are serving as a link between particle physics and cosmology. Ongoing investigations will also develop superstring theory, the exciting candidate for a unification ofgravity, felt by all matter, with the nuclear forcesfelt by quarks and gluons, the electric and magnetic forces felt by electrons, and weak forces felt by neutrinos. The aim of superstring theory is a complete picture of the dynamic processes,and even the geometry, that make up our world.