Some big-pictures questions which concern our understanding of space, time, and matter are at the focus of current research in the Leinweber Institute for Theoretical Physics:
- What is the nature of dark matter?
- Can we classify all phases of matter?
- What are the implications of symmetries and anomalies for physical systems?
- What new physical phenomena do we find in systems far from equilibrium?
- Do black holes teach us about quantum information, and vice versa?
- Are there theoretical structures beyond local quantum field theory?
These and many related questions of this sort involve ideas and techniques used in condensed matter physics, statistical mechanics, general relativity, quantum field theory and string theory. Much of our research is at the interface of these fields.