Research in Classical and Quantum Gravity

University Of California-Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara CA

Investigators

Abstract

This grant is to search for a unified theory of the fundamental laws that apply universally to all physical systems, which has been a longstanding challenge and goal for physics. A current view is that there are two parts to any "final theory" of these basic laws. The basic dynamical law (for example string theory) is one part; a theory of the initial quantum state of the universe is the other. The dynamical law predicts regularities in time; the initial condition predicts regularities in space, in particular the regularities that occur on large, cosmological scales. The research that will be supported by this grant thus bears directly on these longstanding, basic physical questions. The recent remarkable progress in both string theory and cosmology makes this research especially timely.