Particles, Strings and Gravity in Motion

该基金资助了加州大学伯克利分校的Mina Aganagic、Raphael Bousso、peter Horava和Yasunori Nomura教授的研究活动。该项目涉及粒子物理、量子引力、宇宙学和弦理论交叉领域的理论研究，应用范围从超越标准模型的物理学到宇宙学中的多元宇宙方法、弦理论和凝聚态物理的界面、量子引力中空间和时间的本质以及拓扑弦的数学含义。Aganagic教授将研究弦理论在规范理论和数学中的应用；布索教授将研究从弦多元宇宙中提取预测时遇到的挑战，特别是永恒膨胀的测量问题；Horava教授将继续研究具有各向异性尺度的量子引力及其与弦理论、粒子现象学、AdS/CFT对应、里奇流数学和点阵引力的联系；野村教授将考虑理论粒子物理学和宇宙学中与未来几十年的实验相关的各种问题，特别是大型强子对撞机，重点是超对称破缺及其调解，暗物质的起源和本质，以及对多元宇宙的概念理解及其对tev尺度物理学的影响。预计该项目还将产生相当广泛的影响。这包括对参与本研究的学生和博士后的培训；向公众传播研究成果；参与QuarkNet；参加到贫困社区的系列讲座和暑期学校。

This grant funds the research activities of Professors Mina Aganagic, Raphael Bousso, Petr Horava, and Yasunori Nomura at the University of California, Berkeley. This project involves theoretical research at the crossroads of particle physics, quantum gravity, cosmology and string theory, with applications ranging from physics beyond the Standard Model to the multiverse approach in cosmology, the interface of string theory and condensed-matter physics, the nature of space and time in quantum gravity, and mathematical implications of topological strings. Professor Aganagic will investigate applications of string theory in gauge theories and mathematics; Professor Bousso will examine the challenges encountered when extracting predictions from the string multiverse, in particular the measure problem of eternal inflation; Professor Horava will continue to study quantum gravity with anisotropic scaling and its connections to string theory, particle phenomenology, the AdS/CFT correspondence, mathematics of the Ricci flow, and lattice gravity; and Professor Nomura will consider various issues in theoretical particle physics and cosmology relevant to experiments coming in the next decades --- in particular the LHC --- with emphasis on supersymmetry breaking and its mediation, the origin and nature of dark matter, and the conceptual understanding of the multiverse and its implications for TeV-scale physics.This project is also envisioned to have considerable broader impacts. These include the training of students and postdocs who will be involved in this research; dissemination of research results to the general public; involvement in QuarkNet; and participation in lecture series and summer schools that reach under-privileged communities.