New Pathways Connecting Theory and Experiment

该奖项资助教授玛丽K的研究活动。加州大学伯克利分校的盖拉尔、劳伦斯·J·霍尔、村山仁和苏尔吉特·拉詹德兰。 粒子物理学--与宇宙学和天体物理学的相关领域相结合--提出了关于我们宇宙内部和外部运作的基本问题。 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？ 这些问题的答案由什么规律决定？ 这一研究领域的发展非常迅速，在粒子碰撞中具有前所未有的能量，在观察罕见现象时具有前所未有的灵敏度，在精密测量中具有前所未有的准确性。 为了加速这一领域的进展，盖拉尔、霍尔、村山和拉詹德兰教授的目标是开发新的想法，将深入的理论概念与实验可测量的过程联系起来。 建立在他们的跟踪记录，这些PI的还建议，以发现和研究这些特定的连接，这有助于设计在这一领域的未来实验。 通过推进我们对这些基本问题的理解，这项研究符合并支持国家科学基金会的使命，以促进美国基础科学的进步。 此外，这些深刻的问题激发了公众和年轻人的思想，PI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众宣传工作。 从技术上讲，这些PI计划研究与暗物质、中微子、夸克味、超对称现象学和理论、观测宇宙学、场论、弦理论和多元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之外的物理学新景观。 教授盖拉尔将专注于弦理论和低能量可观测物理学之间的联系，和教授Rajendran将调查围绕所谓的弛豫层次问题的新解决方案。 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泛的活动，包括为更大的物理社区提供服务，以促进多样性为明确目标进行指导，参与QuarkNet向高中教师和学生的推广活动，并提供在线公开讲座。

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.