This report is the result of a study encompassing astrophysical phenomena that give insight into fundamental physics, as well as fundamental physics relevant to understanding astrophysical phenomena, and the structure and evolution of the universe.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
We are at a special moment in our journey to understand the universe and the physical laws that govern it. More than ever before astronomical discoveries are driving the frontiers of elementary particle physics, and more than ever before our knowledge of the elementary particles is driving progress in understanding the universe and its contents.

The Committee on the Physics of the Universe was convened in recognition of the deep connections that exist between quarks and the cosmos.

THE QUESTIONS
Both disciplines—physics and astronomy—have seen stunning progress within their own realms of study in the past two decades. The advances made by physicists in understanding the deepest inner workings of matter, space, and time and by astronomers in understanding the universe as a whole as well as the objects within it have brought these scientists together in new ways. ...

Read Connecting Quarks with the Cosmos: Eleven Science Questions for the New Century Online

Paperback: 222 pages
Author: Committee on the Physics of the Universe, National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press (March 7, 2003)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0309074061
ISBN-13: 978-0309074063

INTRODUCTION: Where We Are and Where We Can Be
Elementary particle physicists and astronomers work at different extremes, the very small and the very large. They approach the physical world differently. Particle physicists seek simplicity at the microscopic level, looking for mathematically elegant and precise rules that govern the fundamental particles.

Astronomers seek to understand the great diversity of macroscopic objects present in the universe—from individual stars and black holes to the great walls of galaxies. There, far removed from the microscopic world, the inherent simplicity of the fundamental laws is rarely manifest.

Physicists have extended the current understanding of matter down to the level of the quarks that compose neutrons and protons and their equally fundamental partners the leptons (the electron, the muon, and the tau particle, along with their three neutrino partners).  ...

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