RUI: Beyond Leading Order: Using Computation to Constrain Fundamental Physics

该奖项资助了副教授约翰T。小吉布林在凯尼恩学院最近的观测和实验结果为高能粒子物理的性质和早期宇宙的模型提供了新的线索。 现在比以往任何时候都更清楚，宇宙是唯一的实验室，我们可以在其中研究基础物理，其能量超过加速器所能达到的能量。 描述这些能量的物理学的理论是高度非线性的复杂动力学系统。 Giblin教授的研究将使用尖端的数值技术以及分析方法来预测许多高能物理模型的观测结果。 这些结果将有助于理解当前和未来的观测如何约束超越标准模型物理学的模型。本研究还提出了培养青年学生和大学生科学兴趣的迫切需要。大约250名中学生将被带到凯尼恩学院参加一个“科学星期六”项目，该项目将使他们参与科学活动。学生们还将与科学家们一起工作，为他们提供一个积极的，互动的科学探究模式。这笔资金还将支持本科生的研究和合作。有意义的本科生研究是支持和培养下一代年轻科学家的重要组成部分。该奖项下研究的数值方法将允许非线性和导数耦合场理论的研究，因为它们涉及到通货膨胀，规范理论和引力。在这里开发的软件，网格和气泡进化（GABE），将发现如何阿贝尔和非阿贝尔规范场修改通货膨胀和后通货膨胀的过程，并探讨非最小动力学项的场论的影响。 此外，它将用于预测这些模型的可观测特征，原始功率谱和引力辐射。这些研究将有助于理解现实的暴胀模型是否可行，并与观测结果相一致，并探索粒子的非最小性质作为暗能量性质的可能解释。此外，该奖项将支持在后暴胀时期相变过程中的非线性引力相互作用的研究和相关的数值计算。 当我们为下一代引力波观测站做准备时，引力波光谱的精确预测可能会对这些实验的设计和成本产生严重影响。

This award funds the research of Associate Professor John T. Giblin, Jr. at Kenyon College. Recent observational and experimental results have shed new light on the nature of high-energy particle physics and models of the early Universe. It is clearer now than ever that the Universe is the only laboratory in which we can study fundamental physics at energies above those achievable in accelerators. The theories that describe physics at these energies are highly non-linear, complex dynamical systems. Professor Giblin's research will use employ cutting-edge numerical techniques as well as analytic methods to predict the observational consequences of many models of high-energy physics. These results will help understand how current and future observations can constrain models of beyond-the-standard model physics. This research also addresses the pressing need to cultivate interest in science among young students and college undergraduates. Approximately two hundred fifty middle school students will be brought to Kenyon College for a "Science Saturday" program that will engage them with hands on science activities. Students will also get to work with scientists throughout the day offering them a positive, interactive model of scientific inquiry. This funding will also support undergraduate research and collaboration. Meaningful undergraduate research is a critical component of supporting and cultivating the next generation of young scientists. The numerical methods studied under this award will allow for the study of non-linear and derivatively coupled field theories as they relate to Inflation, Gauge theories and Gravitation. The software developed here, Grid and Bubble Evolver (GABE), will discover how abelian and non-abelian gauge fields modify inflation and post-inflationary process and probe the effects of field theories with non-minimal kinetic terms. Further, it will be used to predict observable signatures, primordial power spectra and gravitational radiation, of these models. These studies will help to understand whether or not realistic models of inflation are viable and consistent with observations, and explore the non-minimal nature of particles as a possible explanation of the nature of Dark Energy. In addition, this award will support investigations of nonlinear gravitational interactions during phase transitions in the post-inflationary epoch and relevant numerical. As we prepare for the next generation of gravitational wave observatories, precise predictions of gravitational wave spectra could have drastic consequences on the design and cost of these experiments.