Research in High Energy Theoretical Physics

University Of Utah, Salt Lake City UT

Investigators

Abstract

This project continues first principles studies of quantum chromodynamics (the theory of the strong interactions) through the use of high performance computer simulations. Emphasis is to be placed on using improved algorithms to extract the most precise values to date of key numbers in the Standard Model of the fundamental interactions in Nature. Results to be obtained are essential for analyzing experimental measurements at national accelerator laboratories and to test the internal consistency of the Model. They may lead to clues about more fundamental interactions. They will also be used to continue studies of the high temperature phase transition between confined matter and the quark-gluon plasma and of the strange quark content of the plasma. Such a phase transition occurred in the evolution of the early Universe and is thought to be achievable in the laboratory in collisions of heavy ions at the RHIC accelerator, which recently began operation at the Brookhaven National Laboratory. These studies are important for extending our understanding of the most fundamental basis of our physical world and of the origins of our Universe. Algorithmic ideas are likely to have applications in other computational fields.