Theoretical research provides the conceptual framework that binds together all the areas of experimental particle physics and opens portals to other realms of science and mathematics. Theorists synthesize existing knowledge, identify gaps in our understanding, and imagine ways to advance the frontiers. They work to create a universal scientific language that encompasses the full panorama of experimental and observational campaigns, and they seek insights that develop into both explanatory and predictive power.
By expressing hypotheses and insights in mathematical form, theorists enable rigorous tests of ideas in new settings. Theory joins our knowledge and speculations about the very large—the Universe and its evolution over cosmological timescales—and the very small—the short distances and time intervals probed directly in collider experiments and indirectly in ultrasensitive experiments.
Theoretical research takes several overlapping forms, each rich and diverse. Exploratory (sometimes denoted fundamental) theory probes our understanding of the theoretical principles and mathematical structures that underlie our modern conception of nature. Within its purview are topics that do not yet have consequences that can be checked by experiment but already point to surprising connections among profound conceptual issues. Particle phenomenology engages closely with experiment and observation, by analyzing and interpreting their results and by proposing new studies. Phenomenologists elaborate the consequences of established or conjectured theories and seek to incorporate new findings by inventing models to explore “If this, then what?” Computational theory advances our science by developing new algorithms and by shaping or adapting novel computing architectures. Large-scale simulations and other machine-based techniques make explicit the implications of theory for experiment and illuminate the structure of theories to a degree impossible by other means.
In many university physics departments, theorists who work in particle physics, astrophysics, and cosmology take the lead in introducing graduate students who contemplate many research topics to the methods and concepts of quantum field theory and to the worldview captured in the standard model of particle physics. Scientists in national laboratories and university departments mentor postdoctoral scholars from around the globe—future leaders in research and technology.
Chris Quigg · Physicist 