As per the National Academy of Science
* What is dark matter?
* What are the masses of the neutrinos, and how have they shaped the evolution of the universe?
* Are there additional spacetime dimensions?
* What is the nature of the dark energy?
* Are protons unstable?
* How did the Universe begin?
* Did Einstein have the last word on gravity?
* How do cosmic accelerators work and what are they accelerating?
* Are there new states of matter at exceedingly high density and temperature?
* Is a new theory of matter and light needed at the highest energies?
* How were the elements from iron to uranium made?
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Currently reading some articles on the Baryon asymmetry, more or less dealing with why there are far more matter than antimatter in the observable universe. However, beyond my own research, I too have compiled a list of fundamental questions some time ago - occasionally adding few when the thought arises. I don't have it with me right now, but I can list it by memory, after all, these questions will haunt you forever (Even on Christmas), which is the reason why i'm awake now. Anyways, it was ironic I came across this, dejavu to put it lightly.
To start, i'll begin with the 'hierarchy' problem, which deals with why gravity is such a weak force, and that it becomes strong only for particles at the Planck scale (around 10^19 GeV I believe), which is much above the electroweak scale. This leads to my second pondering, dealing with the electroweak symmetry breaking - breaking of the gauge symmetry, thereby giving mass to the W and Z bosons. Is it the simple Higgs mechanism? Which leads to the well known problem of why we can't find the Higgs boson. (As you can see, they are all related).
One question i dealt with is why doesn't the zero point energy of the vacuum cause a large cosmological constant? What cancels it out? Why does it accelerate the universe? Why is the universe accelerating?
What is the 'shape' of the universe? More specifically, what is the 3-manifold of comoving space? Because currently, neither the curvature nor the topology is known. (I have also read about the Poincare dodecahedral space manifestation, but I won't get into detail, as I assume the universe is 'unmeasurable').
Can singularities not hidden behind an event horizon of a black hole, known more specifically as 'naked singularities', arise from realistic initial conditions, or is it possible to prove some version of the 'cosmic censorship hypothesis' (chronology protection conjecture)of Roger Penrose which proposes that this is impossible?
Do particles that carry "magnetic charge" exist? (Magnetic Monopoles)
Which could explain the charge quantization.
Is spacetime supersymmetry realized in nature?
What are the phases of strongly interacting matter, and what roles do they play in the cosmos?
Are there physical phenomena, such as black holes or wave function collapse, which irrevocably destroy information about their prior states? Trying to convey of 'Physical information'.
Finally, because i'm a bit tired now, my final thought deals with entropy - more or less about the 'arrow' of time. Why did the universe have such low entropy in the past, resulting in the distinction between past and future and the second law of thermodynamics?
I would state the about the thought i had of a 'theory of everything' and the arguments made, but that would take approximately 8 pages to read (posted on my blog - no link), and leads to some interesting conclusions that I believe are valid. But i think i'll leave that for another day as i am in the 'holiday' spirit.
Well, Happy Capitalist Appreciation Day!
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