IPhT is a research institute of the Fundamental Research Division (CEA) and of the Physics Institute (INP/CNRS). It hosts approximatively 50 permanent physicists and about 60 doctoral students and postdocs.

The main goal of the institute are to formulate and study the mathematical and physical laws that govern our universe, its structure and organization. They range from studying the fundamental interactions, in particular designed to describe the primordial universe, to model development in order to understand some biological structures. Among these objectives, the mathematical study of complex systems in statistical physics and field theory is also invastigated.

The research themes of IPhT cover most of the active subjects in theoretical physics:

• Mathematical Physics: from almost pure mathematics to some studies which can be related to experiments (quantum field theory, integrable systems, conformal field theory, string theories, random matrices, combinatorics, probability and random processes)
• Cosmology, particle and nuclear physics: nuclear matter at high temperature and density, heavy ion collisions, calculation of amplitudes for the LHC, physics beyond the standard model, dark matter, formation of large scale structures in the early universe and gravitational waves
• Statistical and condensed matter physics: non equilibrium statistical physics, disordered systems and condensed matter physics

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