Speaker: Andre Walker-Loud, LBL, Berkeley

Host: Srimoyee Sen

Title: QCD and the Universe

Abstract: There are many features of the universe we believe we understand well, and others that present a great mystery.  For example, the composition of the matter in the universe is explained remarkably well with Big Bang Nucleosynthesis that describes the evolution of the universe from a few micro-seconds after the Big Bang through the first few minutes.  At the same time, the abundance of matter over anti-matter in the universe remains a significant mystery.  It is not surprising, given that QCD is the fundamental theory of the “strong force” that QCD plays a significant role in our understanding of the composition and evolution of the universe.  Further, there are several emergent fine-tunings in nature that arise from QCD which play critical roles in our existence.  I will discuss progress we are making with lattice QCD and effective field theory to understand such fine tunings, as well as to understand how new beyond the Standard Model physics may interact with matter to give rise to the observed mysteries.