Theoretical Physics

University Of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign, Urbana IL

Investigators

Abstract

Research in theoretical elementary particle physics will focus on the properties of nuclear matter in extreme environments, such as high temperatures or high density. Phase transitions are expected in these situations between conventional matter approximating the interior of a large nucleus and new, highly exotic large-scale states of matter in which there may be superfluidity, superconductivity and plasmas of unconfined quarks and gluons, the constituents of nuclear matter. Computer simulations as well as precise, analytic methods based on the theory of symmetries, will be employed to search for these new phenomena. These studies are important because they may tell us about conditions in the early universe.