Research in Gravitational Physics

该奖项支持引力物理学的广泛研究，包括经典广义相对论和弯曲时空中的量子场论的研究项目。这项研究的主要目的是为了更深入地了解爱因斯坦广义相对论对涉及黑洞的现象的含义，以及强引力场中量子现象的本质。这项研究将要求研究生直接参与研究的各个方面，从而有助于他们的训练。与该奖项相关的研究领域引起了公众的极大兴趣，因此将开展一些活动，例如举办公开讲座，以帮助向公众传播科学知识。提出的具体研究课题包括：是否可以类比未来零无穷大的记忆效应来定义黑洞的记忆效应；分析霍金辐射是否可能与黑洞蒸发后残留的闵可夫斯基区域的真空波动纠缠在一起，从而使最终状态变得纯净；由正则能推导出的自作用力性质分析用赫兹势产生的度规扰动的正则能量表达式来证明克尔的轴对称稳定性；确定是否——通过使用场重定义自由——由Holland和Hollands导出的算子积展开系数方程可以改写为时空局域的形式；研究一个人是否以及如何能够理解数学上不合理的方程，这些方程旨在表示替代广义相对论的有效场论。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award supports a broad range of research in gravitational physics, including research projects in classical general relativity and quantum field theory in curved spacetime. The main aim of this research is to obtain a deeper understanding of the implications of Einstein's theory of general relativity for phenomena involving black holes, as well as the nature of quantum phenomena in strong gravitational fields. The research will involve the direct participation of graduate students in all aspects of the research, and it will thereby contribute to their training. The areas of research associated with this award are of considerable interest to the public, and activities will be undertaken, such as giving public lectures, that aid in the dissemination of scientific knowledge to the public.The specific research topics proposed include: An investigation of whether a memory effect can be defined for black holes in analogy to the memory effect at future null infinity; an analysis of whether it is possible for Hawking radiation to be entangled with vacuum fluctuations in the Minkowski region that remains after black hole evaporation, in such a way as to make the final state pure; an analysis of properties of self-force that can be deduced from canonical energy; an analysis of whether axisymmetric stability of Kerr can be proven/elucidated using the expression for canonical energy of a metric perturbation generated from a Hertz potential; a determination of whether---by use of field redefinition freedom---the equations derived by Holland and Hollands for the operator product expansion coefficients can be re-written in a form that is local in spacetime; an investigation of whether and how one can make sense of mathematically ill posed equations that are intended to represent effective field theories for alternatives to general relativity.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.