prof. dr. D. (Daniël) Boer
Research interests
The research of Daniël Boer focuses on the physics of
elementary particles, in particular on quarks and gluons (QCD) and
on possible new particles beyond the current Standard Model of
elementary particle physics. In 2019 Boer was elected fellow of the
American Physical Society "for contributions toward the
understanding of the spin and momentum structure of quarks and
gluons in nucleons, in particular those relevant in single spin
asymmetries, and for studies of the color glass condensate phase in
quantum chromodynamics.” Those contributions have helped
shape the physics case of the future Electron-Ion Collider (EIC)
that is under construction in the U.S.A. and will be operational in
the 2030s. Especially the synergies of the EIC and LHC are his
current research interests. The focus here is on novel effects at
high energies from the collective behavior of gluons and the
theoretical description thereof.
The knowledge of gluons is essential for a proper description of
high-energy scattering. This also applies to searches for new
particles. So far there are no experimental indications for such
new physics, therefore, theoretical investigations will have to
follow general guiding principles. It turns out to be very hard to
find highly symmetric theories that naturally, i.e. without
fine-tuning, lead to the Standard Model at low energies and satisfy
the extremely stringent experimental constraints on any new
physics. This is a longstanding problem that will probably require
completely new approaches, which is another research
interest.