Problems in Theoretical Physics

该奖项将资助加州大学圣巴巴拉分校的David Gross、Joseph Polchinski、Mark Sredicki、Robert Sugar和Anthony Zee教授的研究活动。该奖项将支持旨在通过各种方法：理论、计算和建立基本粒子属性的模型来理解物质的基本构件和潜在自然的基本规律的研究。格罗斯和波尔钦斯基主要致力于建立基于弦理论和相关思想的引力和粒子相互作用的统一理论。具体的方法是研究黑洞的量子力学性质，从更基本的理论中出现时空，以及理解这些理论中出现的更高的对称性。糖用大规模计算来研究强核相互作用的性质，目的是测试现有的粒子性质标准模型，并寻找新的物理。Sredicki和Zee研究已知粒子和新粒子的模型，包括中微子、超对称粒子和暗物质。从大型强子对撞机和费米实验室到各种深矿和天基观测，这些都是大量实验将继续报告新结果的领域。该小组成员的兴趣广泛，并在其他领域开展工作，包括非平衡动力学、量子混沌及其与数学和物理的联系、量子场论(量子物理的基本数学框架)的新方法和应用，以及对推动宇宙加速扩张的宇宙常数的理解。研究生和博士后研究员的培训是该基金的主要活动。该奖项涵盖了广泛的研究课题，以及加州大学伯克利分校和卡夫利理论物理研究所的强大科学基础，为年轻科学家的教育提供了良好的环境。私人投资机构还积极地通过讲座、写作以及与科学媒体和媒体的互动向公众传播科学，有几个还编写了广泛使用的教科书。格点规范理论的部分工作旨在为整个美国格点规范理论社区开发大规模计算基础设施。正在采取的方法具有广泛的可能性，可以应用于许多科学和工程领域的计算密集型问题。

This award funds the research activities of Professors David Gross, Joseph Polchinski, Mark Srednicki, Robert Sugar, and Anthony Zee at the University of California at Santa Barbara.This award will support research aimed at understanding the basic building blocks of matter and the fundamental laws underlying nature by a variety of approaches: theoretical, computational, and by building models of the properties of elementary particles. Gross and Polchinski are largely focused on the construction of a unified theory of gravity and the particle interactions, based on string theory and related ideas. Particular approaches are the study of the quantum mechanical properties of black holes, the emergence of space-time from a more fundamental theory, and the understanding of higher symmetries that appear in these theories. Sugar studies the properties of the strong nuclear interaction using large-scale computation, directed at testing the existing Standard Model of particle properties and the search for new physics. Srednicki and Zee study models of known and new particles, including neutrinos, supersymmetric particles, and dark matter. These are all areas where a host of experiments will continue to report new results, from the LHC and Fermilab to a variety of deep-mine and space-based observations. The members of the group are broad in their interests and work on other areas as well, including nonequilibrium dynamics, quantum chaos and its connections with mathematics and physics, new methods and applications in quantum field theory (the basic mathematical framework for quantum physics), and the understanding of the cosmological constant, which drives the accelerating expansion of the universe.The training of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows is a major activity of this grant. The broad range of research topics covered by this award, and the strong scientific base at UCSB and the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, provide an excellent environment for the education of young scientists. The PIs are also active in communicating science to the public, through lectures, writings, and interactions with the scientific press and the media, and several have written widely used textbooks. Part of the effort in lattice gauge theory is aimed at developing large-scale computational infrastructure for the entire U.S. lattice gauge theory community. The approach being taken has broad possibilities for application to computationally-intensive problems in many areas of science and engineering.