Chris Quigg

Theoretical Physics Department · MS106
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
P.O. Box 500 (Kirk Road and Pine Street)
Batavia, Illinois 60510 USA
phone: +1 (630) 840-3578 · fax: +1 (630) 840-5435 · email: quigg@fnal.gov

The LHC at CERN is starting up!  · ATLAS Tour · 2007 update · CMS Tour · 2007 update · Tracker


"The Coming Revolutions … " public lecture at Fermilab video or podcast & February 2008 Scientific American

"Spontaneous symmetry breaking as a basis of particle mass" is a Reports on Progress in Physics Highlight of 2007

The Atom Smashers on Public Broadcasting's Independent Lens, November 25, 2008

 


Particle Physics!

Wonderful opportunities await particle physics over the next decade, with new instruments and experiments poised to explore the frontiers of high energy, infinitesimal distances, and exquisite rarity. We look forward to the Large Hadron Collider at CERN to explore the 1-TeV scale (extending efforts at LEP and the Tevatron to unravel the nature of electroweak symmetry breaking) and many initiatives to develop our understanding of the problem of identity: what makes a neutrino a neutrino and a top quark a top quark. Here I have in mind the work of the B factories and the hadron colliders on CP violation and the weak interactions of the b quark; the wonderfully sensitive experiments around the world on CP violation and rare decays of kaons; the prospect of definitive accelerator experiments on neutrino oscillations and the nature of the neutrinos; and a host of new experiments on the sensitivity frontier. We might even learn to read experiment for clues about the dimensionality of spacetime.

Experiments that use natural sources also hold great promise for the decade ahead. We suspect that the detection of proton decay is only a few orders of magnitude away in sensitivity. Astronomical observations should help to tell us what kinds of matter and energy make up the universe. The areas already under development—if not exploitation—include gravity wave detectors, neutrino telescopes, cosmic microwave background measurements, cosmic-ray observatories, γ-ray astronomy, and large-scale optical surveys. Indeed, the whole complex of experiments and observations that we call astro/cosmo/particle physics should enjoy a golden age.

If we are inventive enough, we may be able to follow this rich menu with the physics opportunities offered by a linear electron-positron collider and a (muon storage ring) neutrino factory. I expect a remarkable flowering of experimental particle physics, and of theoretical physics that engages with experiment.

Our theories of the fundamental particles and the interactions among them are in a very provocative state. We have achieved a simple and coherent understanding of an unprecedented range of natural phenomena, but our new understanding raises captivating new questions. In search of answers, we have made far-reaching speculations about the universe that may lead to revolutionary changes in our perception of the physical world, and our place in it. See my colloquium, "The Coming Revolutions in Particle Physics."


 
My work ranges over many topics in particle physics, from electroweak symmetry breaking and supercollider physics to heavy quarks and the strong interaction among them to ultrahigh-energy neutrino interactions. The essential interplay between theory and experiment is a guiding theme. Because we cannot hope to advance without new instruments, I have devoted much energy to helping to define the future of particle physics—and the new accelerators that will take us there.


Current Research

Estia Eichten, Ken Lane, and I continue to investigate the new meson states associated with charmonium. We have advocated the potential of B-meson gateways to missing charmonium levels, and studied the influence of open-charm channels on charm-anticharm bound states. Our interest in the state X(3872) seen in J/ψ π+π decays, which at first seemed a candidate for the 13D2 or 13D3 level, has broadened with the discovery of other new states.

Gabriela Barenboim, Olga Mena, and I have explored absorption lines caused by the annihilation of ultrahigh-energy neutrinos on the relic neutrino background. The sensitivity of the absorption spectra to the thermal history of the universe led us to suggest the possibility of an Undulant Universe whose expansion is characterized by alternating eras of acceleration and deceleration. We have recently assessed the observational constraints on undulant cosmologies.

 I am exploring new ways to envision particles and interactions, to make the established relationships and open questions of particle physics accessible without equations. I have devised a three-dimensional object, the double simplex, to serve as an invitation to narrative and a faithful representation of what we know is true, what we hope might be true, and what we don't know. My Berkeley colloquium is available online.

My colleagues and I are examining the discovery potential of medium-energy neutrino beams created in the beta-decay of radioactive isotopes accelerated to high energies, and of monochromatic νe beams produced by electron capture.

With Olga Mena and Irina Mocioiu, I am looking into various scenarios for the lensing of neutrinos by massive objects.