U.S.-Mexico Cooperative Research Program: Theoretical High Energy Physics - Nonperturbative Studies in String Theory

Brown University, Providence RI

Investigators

Abstract

0334379 Lowe This Americas Program award will support collaboration between Dr. David Lowe of Brown University, Prof. Alberto Guijosa of the Instituto de Ciencias Nucleares, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM), and Prof. Hugo Garcia-Compean of the Centro de Investigacion y de Estudios Avanzados del IPN (CINVESTAV). The collaborators intend to work on some of the central outstanding issues in quantum gravity and string theory. Their main goal is to achieve a better understanding of string theory when gravitational effects are dominant, such as in black hole spacetimes and in cosmology where current perturbative techniques break down. In recent years various nonpertubative formulations of string theory have been conjectured. These conjectures open the door to understanding many of the outstanding issues in string theory, such as vacuum selection, physics in strong gravity spacetimes, the idea of holography in gravitation theories, and early universe cosmology, as well as deepening our understanding of quantum field theories dual to string theory. The U.S. collaborator is a leader in the study of the duality between string theory and ordinary quantum field theory, especially in connection with various aspects of black holes, while the Mexican side brings to the collaboration expertise in analyzing black hole physics and physics in noncommutative spacetimes.