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My research is in particle physics and cosmology. These fields might appear to be completely different, with one concerned with the universe's smallest building blocks and the other concerned with the universe as a whole. In recent years, however, the most powerful particle colliders have recreated conditions that existed in the universe just a fraction of a second after the Big Bang, providing a window on the early history of the universe. At the same time, the most powerful telescopes have weighed the universe and determined that the known particles make up only 5% of its mass, providing overwhelming evidence for new particles and laws of nature at the smallest length scales.
Studies of the universe at the smallest and largest length scales are therefore now intimately connected. I am investigating a number of subjects that exploit this synergy, with the goal of answering several outstanding fundamental questions. These include:
These research interests were described for a general audience in (below, from left to right) my 2010 Pagels Memorial Public Lecture, What's the Matter?, the accompanying interview, a 2010 Scientific American article, Dark Worlds (right below), the accompanying multimedia presentation, and an animated PhD Comics, Dark Matters.
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Popular press articles about my research and related fields may be found here. For introductions to particle physics for the lay reader, try Particle Adventure, an award-winning, interactive tour of the particle world, and Discovering the Quantum Universe, a colorful, 44-page document produced by the High Energy Physics Advisory Panel.