Physics at the Frontier: Collider and Cosmology

该奖项资助Stojkovic、Kinney和Wackeroth教授在纽约州立大学和布法罗大学的研究活动。这个研究项目的目标是在粒子物理学、宇宙学和重力研究的前沿提供关键开放问题的答案方面取得重要进展，并在此过程中显著超越该领域的当前艺术状态。pi提出单独的研究计划，其中的要素将共同执行。新的粒子加速器，如大型强子对撞机（LHC）和设想中的后继者，正在探索能量前沿的新物理学，并能够为有关宇宙结构和历史的重要问题提供答案。另一方面，宇宙学提供了一个独特的实验室来研究传统粒子物理方法无法解决的物理问题，并对加速器形成了有价值的补充。我们目前对宇宙的起源、演化和未来等基本问题的理解仍处于初级阶段，需要综合许多独立的证据来为解释指明道路。该项目反映了这种协同作用，并有望在将高精度宇宙学和加速器数据与宇宙的起源和演化、引力与量子力学的统一、真空在空间和时间结构中的作用等基本问题联系起来方面取得重大进展。此外，pi将继续以公开讲座和各种外展活动的形式，积极和成功地向公众介绍最新的科学成果。这些活动包括科学探索日、物理开放日和家庭日。Kinney（在Stojkovic和Wackeroth的积极参与下）将继续组织科学和艺术歌舞表演，这是一个独特的尖端科学和技术与艺术，音乐，诗歌和表演的结合，以及在UB研讨会，这是一个新的跨学科讲座系列，将于2013年举行的原型活动。斯托伊科维奇的研究将涵盖他的专业领域，从粒子物理学到宇宙学。他的部分研究将集中在大型强子对撞机物理上，特别是进一步开发全面的大型强子对撞机事件发生器BlackMax，该装置被ATLAS和CMS广泛用于寻找奇异的物理现象，以及理解最近希格斯发现对引力和宇宙学的影响（与Wackeroth合作）。他的部分研究将致力于宇宙学，特别是研究最近提出的一类暴胀模型的预测（与Kinney合作），以及研究类星体光曲线中新的令人费解的模式，这些模式似乎与类星体的红移密切相关。金尼研究的主要目标是在新的观测数据和早期宇宙的详细特性之间建立定量联系，以解决一些基本问题，例如：宇宙膨胀的能量尺度是什么？在通货膨胀势中，序算子的形式是什么？暴胀拉格朗日是否与简单规范场论一致？是否有量子引力效应的证据，例如量子模式中的普朗克尺度截止？我们能否解释宇宙微波背景的异常现象，比如普朗克观测到的半球形不对称现象？有没有可行的替代通货膨胀的方法？它们有什么特性？瓦克罗斯将专注于精密电弱（EW）物理，特别是对强子碰撞中W和Z玻色子产生的修正，改进与重夸克相关的H，W， Z产生的预测，以及NLO EW对非标准耦合的三EW规范玻色子产生的修正。这项工作将与即将到来的LHC数据分析直接相关。

This award funds the research activities of Professors Stojkovic, Kinney, and Wackeroth at the State University of New York, University at Buffalo. The goal of this research project is to make important progress in providing answers to key open questions at the frontier of of particle physics, cosmology and gravity research, and in doing so to go significantly beyond the current state of the art in the field. The PIs propose individual research programs with elements which will be executed jointly. New particle accelerators such as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and envisioned successors are probing new physics at the energy frontier and are capable of providing answers to important questions about the structure and history of the universe. On the other hand, cosmology provides a unique laboratory to study questions in physics inaccessible to traditional particle physics methods, and forms a valuable complement to accelerators. Our current understanding of the fundamental problems about the origin, evolution and future of our universe is still in its infancy, and a synthesis of many independent lines of evidence will be necessary to point the way to explanations. This project reflects that synergy, and promises to make significant progress in connecting high-precision cosmological and accelerator data to fundamental questions such as the origin and evolution of the universe, the unification of gravitation with quantum mechanics, the role of the vacuum in the structure of space and time. In addition the PIs will continue with their very active and successful presentation of the latest scientific results to a wide public in the form of public talks and various outreach activities. These will include The Science Exploration Day, Physics Open House, and Family Day. Kinney (with active participation of Stojkovic and Wackeroth) will continue organizing Science and Art Cabaret} - a unique mix of cutting-edge science and technology with art, music, poetry, and performance, and the At UB Symposium, a new interdisciplinary lecture series with a prototype event being held in 2013.Stojkovic's research will span topics within his expertise from particle physics to cosmology. Part of his research will be focused to the LHC physics, in particular on further development of a comprehensive LHC event generator BlackMax which is extensively used by ATLAS and CMS in search for exotic physics, and understanding implications of the recent Higgs discovery on gravity and cosmology (in collaboration with Wackeroth). Part of his research will be dedicated to cosmology, in particular to studying predictions of a recently proposed class of inflationary models (in collaboration with Kinney), as well as studying new puzzling patterns in quasar light curves which seem to be closely related to the quasars' redshifts. The main goal of Kinney's research is to make quantitative connections between new observational data and detailed properties of the early universe to address fundamental questions such as: What is the energy scale of cosmological inflation? What is the form of the leading-order operator in the inflationary potential? Is the inflationary Lagrangian consistent with a simple canonical field theory? Is there evidence for quantum gravity effects, for example a Planck-scale cutoff in quantum modes? Can we explain CMB anomalies, such as the hemispherical asymmetry observed by Planck? Are there viable alternatives to inflation? What properties do they have? Wackeroth will concentrate on the precision electroweak (EW) physics, in particular on corrections to W and Z boson production in hadronic collisions, improving predictions for H,W, Z production in association with heavy quarks, and NLO EW corrections to triple EW gauge boson production with non-standard couplings. This work will be directly relevant to analysis of upcoming LHC data.