NUHEP-Theory Page

Northwestern University High Energy Theory Page

It is the goal of High Energy Physics to study matter at the smallest distance scales, in an attempt to uncover the fundamental building blocks of Nature and understand their dynamics.

After several decades of intensive theoretical and experimental research, a very successful model was constructed - the High Energy community refers to it as the "Standard Model". Until recently, the Standard Model was able to explain ALL particle physics data, often with enourmous precision.

Nonetheless, there is reason to believe that the Standard Model is not the whole story. First of all, it does not include gravitational interactions, which we know are present. Second of all, the mechanism for electroweak symmetry breaking remains a mystery. Is the elusive Higgs boson really "all there is" to the dynamics of electroweak symmetry breaking? Is Nature supersymmetric just above the electroweak scale? How can we tell? Are there tiny extra space dimensions, and do they have anything to do with the weak scale? How can we tell? Second of all, experiments have already found evidence for new physics: it seemed to have first manifested itself in the leptonic sector, in the form of neutrino masses. What does that tell us about the physics at very short distance scales? Are neutrinos like the quarks and charged leptons, or are they special? What do we have to do in order to find out more?

As theoretical physicists, these are the questions we attempt to answer. Some of our most recent efforts can be found here.

CURRENT MEMBERS:

Gabriel Abelof (Postdoctoral Fellow): gabriel.abelof at northwestern.edu

Jeff Berryman (Graduate Student): JeffreyBerryman2012 at u.northwestern.edu

André de Gouvêa (Professor): degouvea at northwestern.edu

Daniel Hernández (Postdoctoral Fellow): d.hernandez at northwestern.edu

Kevin Kelly (Graduate Student): kkelly942 at gmail.com

Anirudh Krovi (Graduate Student):VenkatKrovi at u.northwestern.edu

Ian Low (Associate Professor): ilow at northwestern.edu

Bob Oakes (Professor Emeritus): r-oakes at northwestern.edu

Frank Petriello (Professor): f-petriello at northwestern.edu