Division I conducts research in the areas of elementary particle physics, quantum field theory, gravitation and string theory, astrophysics and cosmology, unification theory, mathematic physics and simulation physics.Its research orientations include:(1)Quantum Field Theory and Microscopic Structure of Matter; (2)String Theory, Gravity and Cosmology.
(1) Quantum Field Theory and Microscopic Structure of Matter
In the framework of quantum gauge field theory, the Standard Model of the strong, electromagnetic and weak interactions has enjoyed many splendid successes in the last decades, especially with the possible detection of its last predicted particle, the Higgs boson, very recently at LHC. Still, it suffers from some unsolved problems, such as: Why do particle masses and coupling constants have the values that we measure? Why are there three generations of particles? Why is there much more matter than antimatter in the universe? Where does dark matter fit into the model? Is it even a new particle? How to modify the classic Standard Model to include the neutrino mass? These problems suggest new physics beyond the Standard Model. On the other hand, within the Standard Model, it is still a challenge to understand and describe the formation and the forms of strongly interacting matter as hadrons and atomic nuclei due to its non-perturbative character of the underlying gauge theory, Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) in the low energy regime. Aiming to solve these problems, the main research topics of this group currently include: models beyond the standard model including supersymmetry and grand unifications, Higgs phenomenology, dark matter models and detection, flavor mixing and CP violation, heavy flavor physics, neutrino physics, hadron structure and hadron spectroscopy, structure of exotic nuclei, structure and synthesis mechanism of superheavy nuclei, Lattice QCD, AdS/QCD and effective theories.
（2）String Theory, Gravity and Cosmology
Gravitation is one of four kinds of fundamental interactions in nature. As a theory of gravitation, the general relativity greatly succeeds in cosmology and astrophysics, and has been tested with great precision from the millimeter in small scale to the solar system in large scale. However, it is a fundamental problem whether the general relativity holds in other scales. The difficulty still exists as to unify the general relativity and quantum mechanics; to develop a theory of quantum gravity is one of most important challenges in modern theoretical physics. String theory is one of the most promising candidates of quantum gravity theory. On the other hand, with the development of modern high technology, cosmology enters into a precision era and “golden” time. All current observations indicates a concordance model: inflation⊕hot big bang⊕dark matter⊕dark energy. The research of this group currently focuses on topics in theory of quantum gravity and cosmology, including: the holographic principle of gravitation, black hole physics, thermodynamics of apparent horizon, entropic force formalism, Harava-Lifshitz gravity, applications of AdS/CFT correspondence in condensed matter physics, the nature of inflation, dark matter and dark energy, and CMB physics.
