New Pathways Connecting Theory and Experiment

该奖项资助加州大学伯克利分校的玛丽·K·盖拉德教授、劳伦斯·J·霍尔教授、村山仁教授和苏吉特·拉金德兰教授的研究活动。粒子物理学-结合宇宙学和天体物理学的相关领域-提出关于我们宇宙内部和外部工作的基本问题。宇宙是如何开始的？它是用什么做的？我们是如何存在的？我们要去哪里？这些问题的答案是由什么法律管辖的？这一领域的研究进展非常迅速，在粒子碰撞中冒险进入前所未有的能量，在观察罕见现象方面前所未有的敏感性，在精确测量方面前所未有的准确性。为了加快这一领域的进展，Gaillard、Hall、Murayama和Rajendran教授的目标是开发新的想法，将深层次的理论概念与可实验测量的过程联系起来。根据他们的记录，这些PI还建议发现和研究这些特定的联系，这有助于设计这一领域的未来实验。通过促进我们对这些基本问题的理解，这项研究符合并支持美国国家科学基金会促进美国基础科学进步的使命。此外，这些深刻的问题激发了普通公众和年轻人的头脑，国际和平组织将继续致力于培养年轻科学家，促进多样性，并通过讲座、学校、媒体和科普书籍参与公共宣传努力。更严格地说，这些圆周率计划研究与暗物质、中微子、夸克味道、超对称性的现象学和理论、观测宇宙学、场论、弦理论和多重宇宙直接相关的问题。村山教授将专注于利用所有这些领域的数据，以限制可能的相应理论框架，而霍尔教授将研究标准模型以外的物理学的新前景。盖拉德教授将专注于弦理论和低能可见物理之间的联系，拉金德兰教授将研究围绕所谓的弛豫子的层级问题的新解决方案。他还将研究新的轴子探测技术。这些教授还将继续开展影响更广的活动，包括为更大的物理界提供服务，以促进多样性为明确目标进行指导，参与QuarkNet对高中教师和学生的外联活动，并提供将在网上提供的公开讲座。

This award funds the research activities of Professors Mary K. Gaillard, Lawrence J. Hall, Hitoshi Murayama, and Surjeet Rajendran at the University of California, Berkeley. Particle physics --- in conjunction with related areas in cosmology and astrophysics --- asks fundamental questions about the inner and outer workings of our Universe. How did the Universe begin? What is it made of? How have we come to exist? Where we are going? What laws govern the answers to these questions? This area of research is moving very fast, venturing into unprecedented energies in particle collisions, unprecedented sensitivities in observing rare phenomena, and unprecedented accuracies in precision measurements. To accelerate progress in this area, Professors Gaillard, Hall, Murayama and Rajendran aim to develop novel ideas that will connect deep theoretical concepts to experimentally measurable processes. Building on their track records, these PI's also propose to discover and study those specific connections which aid in designing future experiments in this area. By advancing our understanding of these fundamental problems, this research aligns with and supports the mission of the National Science Foundation to promote the progress of basic science in the United States. Moreover, these kinds of profound questions excite the general public and young minds, and the PI's will continue to be engaged in training young scientists, promoting diversity, and participating in public outreach efforts through lectures, schools, media, and popular science books. More technically, these PI's plan to study questions of direct relevance to dark matter, neutrinos, quark flavor, the phenomenology and theory of supersymmetry, observational cosmology, field theory, string theory, and the multiverse. Professor Murayama will focus on exploiting data from all of these areas in order to constrain possible corresponding theoretical frameworks, while Professor Hall will study new landscapes for physics beyond the Standard Model. Professor Gaillard will focus on connections between string theory and low-energy observable physics, and Professor Rajendran will investigate new solutions to the hierarchy problem which revolve around the so-called relaxion. He will also study new axion detection techniques. These professors will also maintain their broader-impact activities which involve service to the larger physics community, mentoring with an explicit goal of promoting diversity, engaging in QuarkNet outreach activities to high-school teachers and students, and delivering public lectures which will be available online.