The interests of the faculty working in theoretical elementary particle physics are very broad.   TEP research ranges from rather phenomenological endeavors to investigations into areas bordering on applied mathematics. At the moment the group is undergoing an expansion into superstring and M theory to augment the current research effort. 

On the more phenomenological side, B and K physics, particularly B mesons decays, particle-antiparticle mixing and CP violation as well as non-standard neutrino properties and various aspects of electroweak interactions are also being studied, including investigations into the interesting issues connected with the mechanism for dynamical mass generation and with the possibility of large violations of baryon number and fermion number at high energies. Another of our actively pursued programs is the computation of radiative corrections to quantum chromodynamics, using methods derived from superstring theory together with new formulations of analyticity and unitarity. These computations have direct applications to jet physics in collider experiments, especially for determining QCD backgrounds to searches for the Higgs particle. 

Cosmological issues related to the nature of the "dark matter", which constitues 90 to 99% of the matter in the Universe are also being actively studied along with other topics on the interface between elementary particle physics and astrophysics, for example the generation of the fermion number asymmetry in the Universe (namely why we live in a Universe of matter and not antimatter) and cosmological and astrophysical consequencies of neutrino properties. 

The origin of the ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays is also under study. The observed ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays contradict previous theoretical expectations. 

Non-perturbative aspects of elementary particle theories connected with the phase structure of gauge systems and the issues of quark confinement are also being actively followed. 

Much effort is also being devoted to superstring theories, which offer good promise for including Einstein's general relativity in quantum mechanics. Investigations in string theories have naturally led to a study of conformal field theories which have a close connection with problems in two-dimensional statistical mechanics. String theories have also sparked renewed interest in quantum gravity and its renormalization and unitary problems, as well as in studying various aspects of physics in spaces of constant negative curvature. Even more mathematical physics topics, such as quantum groups, are also under study.