RUI: Scattering Theory Casimir Methods and Coherent Structures in the Early Universe

RUI：散射理论卡西米尔方法和早期宇宙的相干结构

• 批准号: 1213456
• 负责人: Noah Graham
• 金额: $ 12万
• 依托单位: Middlebury College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-07-15 至 2015-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1213456&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RUI; Scattering; Theory; Casimir; Methods

This award funds the research activities of Professor Noah Graham at Middlebury College. The work is organized around two distinct, though related, lines of inquiry.The first research direction focuses on Casimir forces, which arise from quantum-mechanical fluctuations of charges and fields. While Casimir forces are negligible in our everyday experience, at small distances -- in particular, at distance scales relevant to the next generation of microelectromechanical devices -- they can become important. Recent progress has established a systematic framework for calculating these forces in a wide range of situations relevant to nanotechnology. In this approach, one calculates the Casimir force by relating it to fundamental quantities associated with the reflection and scattering of light. This work will create new techniques for computing the necessary reflection and scattering data, and then will apply the results to a wide range of Casimir force calculations. The methods to be used to analyze light reflection and scattering are very general, and thus potentially applicable to a wide range of problems in physics and engineering. The second research direction focuses on the role played by oscillons -- extremely long-lived, localized, oscillatory solutions to the nonlinear equations of motion that arise in field theory models -- during the "reheating" epoch of the early universe, following cosmic inflation and the Big Bang. Here large-scale numerical simulation will play a key role in understanding the self-organizing behavior through which oscillons emerge from a chaotic thermal background.Both of these lines of research will have significant broader impacts in other fields of science and engineering, and in education and training of students. The Casimir project will develop new computational techniques with a wide range of potential applications, while the oscillon project will push the current boundaries of high-performance parallel computing. Through both summer research projects and integration of aspects of this research into the undergraduate curriculum at Middlebury College, both projects will also offer significant new opportunities for students to learn both fundamental physics and broadly applicable analytic and computational skills.

该奖项资助了米德尔伯里学院诺亚·格雷厄姆教授的研究活动。这项工作围绕着两条截然不同但又相互关联的研究路线展开。第一个研究方向集中在卡西米尔力上，卡西米尔力是由电荷和场的量子力学涨落引起的。虽然卡西米尔力在我们的日常经验中可以忽略不计，但在很小的距离上--特别是在与下一代微型机电设备相关的距离尺度上--它们可以变得重要。最近的进展为在与纳米技术有关的广泛情况下计算这些力建立了一个系统的框架。在这种方法中，人们通过将卡西米尔力与与光的反射和散射有关的基本量联系起来来计算卡西米尔力。这项工作将创造计算必要的反射和散射数据的新技术，然后将结果应用于广泛的Casimir力计算。用于分析光反射和散射的方法非常普遍，因此可能适用于物理和工程中的广泛问题。第二个研究方向集中在振子--场论模型中出现的非线性运动方程的极长寿命的、局域的、振荡的解--在宇宙膨胀和大爆炸之后的早期宇宙“再热”时期所起的作用。在这里，大规模的数值模拟将在理解混沌热背景中产生振荡的自组织行为方面发挥关键作用。这两个研究方向都将在其他科学和工程领域以及对学生的教育和培训方面产生重大而广泛的影响。卡西米尔项目将开发具有广泛潜在应用的新计算技术，而振子项目将推动高性能并行计算的现有边界。通过两个暑期研究项目，以及将这项研究的各个方面整合到米德尔伯里学院的本科课程中，这两个项目还将为学生提供重要的新机会，让他们学习基础物理以及广泛适用的分析和计算技能。