Tetsutaro Higaki Laboratory, Department of Physics, Faculty of Science and Technology, Keio University: Tackling the Construction of a "Unified Theory of Elementary Particles Including Quantum Gravity" and Approaching the Origin of the Universe

The Higaki group at the Faculty of Science and Technology, Keio University, is conducting research to construct the ultimate unified theory of physics.

In nature, there are four forces that shape our world: the strong force, the electromagnetic force, the weak force, and gravity. To explore the origin of the universe, one of our goals is to understand the microscopic properties of these forces based on a few principles, but the challenge lies with gravity. It is difficult for particles to mediate gravity as they do in existing theories, so we are conducting research using "superstring theory," which treats gravity as an extended string. As a result, not only is it expected that the microscopic properties of gravity will be elucidated, but it is also anticipated that candidates for dark matter and dark energy, known as the major constituents of the universe, will naturally emerge due to the "extra degrees of freedom" from the extension of the string.