Probing Fundamental Physics on Cosmological Scales

来自PI，尚未编辑：该奖项资助新泽西州普林斯顿高级研究所的Matias Zaldriaga教授的研究活动。对宇宙微波背景的观测使我们能够直接拍摄宇宙区域的图像，因为它们距离大爆炸只有38万年。最近的观测表明，我们当时看到的结构甚至起源于我们宇宙历史上的热大爆炸阶段之前，也就是大爆炸之后的极小一部分秒。这些结构是我们从宇宙历史上得到的最早的化石。为了更好地描述这些结构，试图更多地了解我们宇宙的最早历史，一系列新的观测正在进行中。这一提议将探索结构起源时期的理论模型，以及我们宇宙后来的历史。需要这两项研究来解释这些即将到来的观察结果。预计该项目还将产生更广泛的重大影响。扎尔达里亚加教授将让博士后参与这项研究，这将有助于他们在职业生涯的关键阶段进行培训。扎尔达里亚加教授将继续在当地老年社区中心为老年人举办公开讲座和课程。从技术上讲，扎尔达里亚加教授将研究在膨胀期间在标量种子中产生引力波和非高斯性的新机制。他将致力于所谓的一致性条件，这些条件既适用于早期宇宙，也适用于后来的结构发展。扎尔达里亚加教授还将研究早期宇宙额外探测器背后的理论，例如CMB的光谱扭曲和暗物质的性质，例如即将通过引力透镜追踪的亚结构测量。

from PI, not yet edited:This award funds the research activities of Professors Matias Zaldarriaga at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. Observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background allow us to directly image regions of our Universe as they were only three hundred and eighty thousand years after the Big Bang. Recent observations have shown that the structures that we see at that time originated even before the hot big bang phase in the history of our Universe, a tiny fraction of a second after the Bang. These structures are the earliest fossils we have from our Universe's history. A wide array of new observations are underway to better characterize these structures to try to learn more about the earliest history of our Universe. This proposal will explore theoretical models for the period during which the structures originates as well as for the later history of our Universe. Both studies are needed to interpret these upcoming observations. This project is also envisioned to have significant broader impacts. Professor Zaldarriaga will involve postdoctoral students in this research which will contribute to their training at a critical stage in their career. Professor Zaldarriaga will continue to give public lectures and organize a course for senior citizens in the local senior community center. More technically, Professors Zaldarriaga will study new mechanisms for generating gravitational waves and non-Gaussianities in the scalar seeds during an inflationary period. He will work on the so-called consistency conditions applicable both during the early Universe and to the later development of structure. Professor Zaldarriaga will also study the theory behind additional probes of both the Early Universe, such as spectral distortions in the CMB and the properties of the dark matter, such as upcoming measurements of substructure as traced by gravitational lensing.