The overall scientific questions relate to for example our understanding of dark matter, the origin and nature of high-energy phenomena in the universe, the finetuning problems in the Standard Model of particle physics, very early universe cosmology and the unification of the forces into one theory. These questions induce specific objectives for each of the four groups of which many are shared through inter-group phenomenological research:
Theoretical Physics
Holography (entanglement and spacetime; AdS instability; holographic thermalization); Strings, Supergravity, Geometry and Duality (the geometric nature of spacetime invoked by string theory and its dualities) and recently we joined the research in Gravitational Waves (VIRGO/Ligo and Einstein Telescope)
Particle Physics Experiments
CMS experiment (precise measurements in the top quark and Higgs boson sectors and related searches for new physics phenomena, dark matter and supersymmetry searches, searches for displaced signatures of long-lived particles, development of efficient and robust b/c-tagging methods, towards the construction of one of the two new Outer Tracker endcaps for the Upgraded CMS Detector), SoLid experiment (measurement of the energy spectrum from antineutrinos at a Uranium-235 reactor, confirmation or exclusion of the reactor antineutrino anomaly and potential discovery of neutrino oscillations at very-short baseline) and recently we started an involvement in the physics studies at the Future Circular Collider (FCC)
Astro-Particle Physics
IceCube experiment (search for cosmic sources of high-energy neutrinos; indirect search for dark matter; detection of neutrinos from supernovae, solar flares and gravitational wave events; study of neutrino oscillations at high energies, including sterile neutrinos; development of new detection/analysis techniques for the IceCube-Gen2 detector upgrade), ARA experiment (search for ultra-high-energy (GZK) neutrinos) and Auger experiment (search for correlations between arrival directions of cosmic neutrinos and highest-energy cosmic rays)
High-Energy Astrophysics
LOFAR observatory (mass composition of galactic and extragalactic cosmic rays, search for ultra-high-energy neutrinos, interactions between air showers and thunderstorms), simulation (acceleration and propagation of extragalactic cosmic rays)
With phenomenological research we develop methods and tools towards an inter-group interpretation of the experimental results in existing theories and to build novel models to be confronted with experimental observations. The explicit phenomenological research will focus on beyond the Standard Model physics related to supersymmetry, dark matter, cosmology and inflation, and collider physics