Research

The past years have seen impressive progress in our understanding of the physics at very large and very short distances. At large distances the ΛCDM model is consistent with numerous observations of our Universe. Cosmological precision data, such as the latest measurements of the cosmic microwave background anisotropies by Planck, have determined its free parameters at the percent level. At short distances the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics successfully describes a wide range of phenomena with high precision. For example the anomalous magnetic moment of the electron has been measured to better than 12 significant figures which is matched by a calculation within the SM. Despite the success of these two models, several open questions remain:

  • What is the origin of neutrino masses?
  • Why are there three generations of matter?
  • Is there an explanation for the large hierarchy among the fermion masses?
  • What is dark matter?
  • Why is there more matter than anti-matter?
  • What is the origin of dark energy?
  • What is the underlying theory of dark energy?
  • Which scalar field drives inflation?

The research of the Sydney-CPPC is focussed on answering these questions.