For many physics problems, the governing equations that encode the fundamental physical laws are known. Undertaking key calculations within these frameworks, as is essential to test our understanding of the universe and guide physics discovery, however, can be computationally demanding or even intractable. A primary research area for the IAIFI is AI for such ab initio theory studies. AI for first-principles physics naturally requires approaches with specific features, such as guarantees of exactness, reproducibility, and robust handling of uncertainties.
The specific ab initio physics approaches that we are targeting include first-principles calculations within the Standard Model (SM) of nuclear and particle physics, work to understand physics beyond the SM in the framework of string theory, and theory calculations for astroparticle physics. Complementing these efforts is work towards approaches that do not use AI to study a known theory, but instead to determine what previously unknown theory underlies observations. While the target physics spans a wide range of frameworks and scales, success in these areas all rely intimately on our efforts to advance the field of AI itself with work in interpretability, speed, and incorporating physical symmetries into AI frameworks, i.e. to develop the field of ab initio AI.
Research Highlights
IAIFI Physics Theory Projects: Accelerating Lattice Field Theory with AI, Exploring the Multiverse with AI, Classifying Knots with AI, Astrophysical Simulations with AI, Toward an AI Physicist, and String Theory Conjectures via AI.