Summer Program
Emerging Probes and Enduring Puzzles in Particle Physics
June 20–July 18, 2027
Organizers:
Stefania Gori, University of California Santa Cruz
Claudio Andrea Manzari, Institute for Advanced Study
Christopher G. Tully, Princeton University
Weishuang Linda Xu, SLAC National Accelerator Lab
The origin of the electroweak scale, the strong CP problem, the flavor structure of matter, and the nature of dark matter remain among the deepest open questions in particle physics, and a new generation of collider searches, precision laboratory experiments, and cosmological surveys is now converging on testing overlapping regions of parameter space. This workshop brings together theorists and experimentalists to collaborate in two synergistic directions: the top-down construction of theoretically motivated models to serve as concrete benchmarks for upcoming experiments, and the bottom-up identification of specific new physics targets that are within reach of the experimental data. By bringing together model builders and experimentalists, we aim to sharpen theoretical benchmarks that can guide the design and interpretation of next-generation searches, poised at the dawn of HL-LHC, the Belle-II upgrade, Rubin, and SO.
Summer Workshops
The summer program, running for 16 weeks from late-May to mid-September, emphasizes exciting open problems at the cutting edge. Two or three concurrent workshops, each with a specific focus selected for timeliness and the potential for breakthroughs and of two to five weeks in length, establish the main themes of each week, with twelve or thirteen different workshops each summer, balanced across fields including particle physics, string theory, astrophysics and hard and soft condensed matter physics, as well as emerging areas including biological physics, ultra-cold atom physics, quantum information, and physical mathematics. Additional researchers participate in small working groups or as individual researchers. This framework is designed to maximize informal interactions and free discussion within each area and to promote cross-fertilization between different areas via the common language of theoretical physics. Participation in the summer program of the Aspen Center for Physics is by application and subsequent invitation only. View past workshops.
