|
|
Physics & Astronomy
Ben Kain Assistant Professor (Visiting) Biography: Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, Field: high energy theoretical particle physics. I study particle theory in a couple of different areas. I am interested in early universe cosmology, in particular inflation, a theory that predicts an exponentially large expansion in the size of the universe immediately following the big bang. Experimental evidence, most notably from the WMAP satellite, has convinced most of us that inflation did in fact occur. As a theorist, I try to build models that can account for the observations made by WMAP and other experiments. I am also interested in physics to be tested by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the new international particle collider in Geneva, Switzerland. In particular I study a theory called supersymmetry, a leading candidate for new physics that extends our current standard model of particle physics. As a symmetry, supersymmetry must be broken, otherwise it would have already been discovered. Much of supersymmetric model building is in the form of how it is to be broken. I am currently studying a recent proposal for supersymmetry breaking through metastable vacua. I am also looking forward to its possible discovering in the next few years at the LHC.
Contact Information |
