UNIVERSE+ is a research project funded by the European Research Council (ERC). It comprises particle physics, mathematics, and cosmology. Nima Arkani-Hamed (Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton), Daniel Baumann (University of Amsterdam), Johannes Henn (Max Planck Institute for Physics), and Bernd Sturmfels (Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences) lead the project. The scientists aim to create a new mathematical language to describe physical phenomena on all scales, from the interactions of elementary particles to the large-scale structure of the Universe.
What is UNIVERSE+ about?
The UNIVERSE+ project seeks a new foundation for fundamental physics, ranging from elementary particles to the Big Bang, revealing a hidden world of ideas beyond quantum mechanics and spacetime. Novel geometric objects recently discovered in theoretical physics hint at new mathematical structures. Combinatorics, algebra, and geometry have been connected to particle physics and cosmology in an entirely unexpected way. Leveraging these advances, the team will launch the field of Positive Geometry, as a new mathematical framework for describing the laws of physics. To this end, the project brings together the necessary expertise in particle physics (Nima Arkani-Hamed, Johannes Henn), cosmology (Daniel Baumann) and mathematics (Bernd Sturmfels).
This is the first collaboration of its kind, made possible by a recent confluence of critical insights in both mathematics and physics. Watch the video interview with Daniel Baumann, Johannes Henn and Bernd Sturmfels from the kick-off workshop at the MPI MiS in Leipzig
Objectives
- Develop new tools to compute scattering amplitudes and cosmological correlators.
- Launch a widely applicable new field of mathematics called Positive Geometry.
- Discover the positive geometries that underlie our universe.
Job opportunities
We are recruiting PhD students, postdocs and senior postdocs for the four locations of this project. If you are interested in joining our team, please contact us directly, or apply to one of the positions below.
PhD students:
If you are interested in PhD positions associated to the project please apply via the following websites:
- Graduate Admission at Princeton University, USA
- International Max Planck Research School (IMPRS) Mathematics in the Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
- IMPRS at the Max Planck Institute for Physics, Munich, Germany
Amplitudes 2024 Conference and School
Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ, United States, 10-14 June, 17-21 June, Registration
Further events
- Conference Combinatorial Algebraic Geometry from Physics, Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences, Leipzig, May 13-17, 2024
- Project workshop at the German Physical Society, Bad Honnef, August 20-23, 2024
- Workshop on Holonomic Techniques for Feynman Integrals at the Max Planck Institute for Physics, Munich, October 14-18, 2024
This is just about to start – please follow the updates here.
