Experimental Physics
In high energy physics we seek to understand the nature of space and time, the
characteristics of the forces governing the interactions of matter and energy, and
the origins of the properties of the elementary particles. Modern theories of particle
physics purport to explain the origin of mass, and hope to unify the descriptions of
all the forces, including gravity. Our research group works on projects that test
these ideas.
With the discovery that "normal" matter constitutes only 4% of the total energy
in the universe, the study of dark matter and dark energy has attracted great interest.
We collaborate on two projects that plan to study these phenomena.
Projects with Illinois Participation
Particle Physics:
The ATLAS Detector at the Large Hadron Collider
Collider Detector at Fermilab
Heavy Flavors at the Cornell Electron Storage Ring (CESR)
High Energy Photoproduction
Linear Collider R & D
Astrophysics:
Dark Energy Survey
Large Synoptic Survey Telescope
