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, and especially the synergies of the EIC and LHC are
current research interests. This focuses on novel effects at high
energies from the collective behavior of gluons and the theoretical
description thereof.
Our knowledge of gluons is essential for studies of the Higgs boson
and that probably also applies to any new particles beyond the
Standard Model. 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.