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等研究所Matias Zaldarriaga教授的研究活动。对宇宙微波背景的观测使我们能够直接描绘出宇宙大爆炸后38万年的宇宙区域。最近的观测表明，我们当时看到的结构甚至在宇宙历史上的热大爆炸阶段之前就已经形成了，在大爆炸之后的一小部分时间里。这些结构是我们从宇宙历史中发现的最早的化石。一系列新的观测正在进行中，以更好地描述这些结构，并试图更多地了解我们宇宙的早期历史。该提案将探索结构起源时期的理论模型以及我们宇宙的后期历史。这两项研究都需要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。Zaldarriaga教授将让博士后学生参与这项研究，这将有助于他们在职业生涯的关键阶段进行培训。Zaldarriaga教授将继续在当地老年社区中心进行公开讲座，并为老年人组织课程。从技术上讲，Zaldarriaga教授将研究在暴胀时期在标量种子中产生引力波和非高斯的新机制。他将研究所谓的一致性条件，既适用于早期宇宙，也适用于后来的结构发展。Zaldarriaga教授还将研究早期宇宙的其他探测背后的理论，比如宇宙微波背景的光谱扭曲，以及暗物质的特性，比如即将进行的由引力透镜追踪的子结构测量。

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.