The University of Chicago Research Funding

• Principal Investigator: Jeffrey Harvey, PhD, Enrico Fermi Distinguished Service Professor, Dept. of Physics, Enrico Fermi Institute, and the College
• Co-principal Investigator: Richard Hill, PhD, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Physics, Enrico Fermi Institute, and the College
• Start Date: September 1, 2009
• Total Award Amount: $750,000

Project Description

Experiments at the Tevatron and the Large Hadron Collider are poised to shed light on the nature of electroweak symmetry breaking. New experimental and theoretical tools are being used to probe the structure of matter at high temperature and high density. Physics beyond the standard model is already apparent in phenomena such as neutrino mixing. Dark matter and dark energy suggest deep connections between astrophysics at large distances and particle physics at short distances. The methods of effective field theory are the essential tools for separating energy scales and rendering strongly-interacting quantum field theories tractable.

The PI and co-PI will develop effective field theory descriptions relevant to particle physics phenomenology spanning the energy, intensity, temperature and density, and cosmic frontiers. At the energy frontier, signals of compositeness, supersymmetry and extra dimensions in the electroweak-symmetry breaking sector will be studied. At the intensity frontier, novel interactions of neutrinos and photons will be computed in detail, and their phenomenological consequences explored. At the temperature and density frontier techniques developed in string theory will be used to study the phase structure of hot and dense strongly interacting matter. At the cosmic frontier, dark matter candidates arising from new electroweak-scale physics, and from axions, will be studied.

The broader scientific impact will be that the PI and Co-PI will develop new theoretical tools to analyze possible new fundamental particles and interactions, and will work with experimenters to help discover them. The co-PI will participate as a mentor and consultant in the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools “May Project” independent study program. High school seniors will be exposed to university-level research, and will have the opportunity to investigate a question from one of the frontier areas. Both the PI and Co-PI will participate in other outreach programs which in the past have included appearances on local radio and TV programs and public lectures.

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, NSF Award number: 0855039