U.S. - France Cooperative Research: String Theory and M-Theory Applied to Particle Physics and Cosmology

University Of California-Berkeley, Berkeley CA

Investigators

Abstract

9910077 Murayama This U.S.-France cooperative research award supports Drs. Hitoshi Murayama and Mary K. Gaillard and some graduate students from the University of California at Berkeley in a collaboration with Emilian Dudas and Pierre Benetruy of the Theoretical Physics Laboratory, University of Paris XI, Orsay, France. The international collaboration funded by this award in string theory and M- (membrane) theory will focus on (1) supersymmetry breaking in string theory and in effective field theories; (2) construction of string-derived effective theories and their consequences for particle phenomenology; and (3) cosmological aspects of strings and M-theory. The theoretical investigations will provide information for experiments at the LEP, Fermilab, Large Hadron Collider and future lepton colliders, and experiments in high-energy physics and cosmology. Superstring theory and related theories with elementary extended objects, like membranes, offer the promise for a quantum theory of gravity that encompasses all particle interactions. The ultimate goal of these investigations is to determine the consequences of these theories, subsequently tested by observations and high-energy physics experiments. The Berkeley group brings to this collaboration extensive expertise in superstring models, effective field theories, and the supersymmetric and grand unified model. This is complemented by the Orsay group's expertise in string theory, quantum gravity, and cosmology. The U.S. and French investigators, in particular, the graduate students in the project, will benefit from interaction with each other and with other string theorists, theoretical cosmologists, and astrophysicists located on the Berkeley and Orsay campuses.