Particles, Strings and the Cosmos

College Of William And Mary, Williamsburg VA

Investigators

Abstract

The research of the PI is focused on uniting ideas from string theory, particle phenomenology and cosmology to form a coherent picture consistent with experiment and observation. The proposed research is at the interface between fields: the application of string theory to gauge theories; and the interface between gravity, cosmology and particle physics. This proposal suggests a new model for the strong interactions motivated by string theory which makes predictions for particle spectra and interactions. This proposal also suggests new approaches to some of the outstanding problems of particle physics and cosmology, namely the nature of CP violations in the strong interactions, the source of supersymmetry breaking, and the proper interpretation of the dark energy which seems to fill the universe. Some of this physics will be tested experimentally in the near future. In addition, this proposal suggests a formal study relating phenomenologically interesting gauge theories to much simpler matrix models.