Theoretical Physics of Fundamental and Cosmological Interactions

该奖项资助约翰霍普金斯大学的马克·卡米恩科夫斯基教授和大卫·e·卡普兰教授的研究活动。对物理学基本定律的探索正处于一个激动人心但又充满不确定性的时期。当我们急切地等待着在大型强子对撞机上发现新的物理现象，或者期待着未来十年对暗物质的探索时，现有的零结果已经迫使理论学家抛弃旧的偏见，深入思考基础物理学的全新理念和寻找新物理的新实验途径。观测/实验宇宙学的最新发展提供了令人兴奋的前景，为最早的宇宙打开了全新的窗口，并理解了推动宇宙加速膨胀的物理学和暗物质的本质。卡米奥科夫斯基和卡普兰的研究解决了粒子物理学和宇宙学中理论与实验相结合的核心问题。他们的工作将为宇宙学观测和基础物理研究提出新的思路，他们将提出新的机制和模型，最终可能有助于对自然规律的综合。这项研究将与学生和博士后的培训携手进行，这些学生和博士后将成为后代的科学领袖，该小组将继续充满活力地寻求将粒子物理学和宇宙学的兴奋传达给公众。沿着这些路线进行的理论研究通过优化我们对主要实验设施的投资来促进国家利益，以寻求理解新的物理定律。在技术层面上，卡普兰将开发新的非加速器方向，探索自然的基本规律，同时推动对我们所看到的现象进行更深入的理解。Kamionkowski将开发新的方法，通过天体物理观测和非加速器实验来寻找新的物理学。他将研究暗能量的新想法，开发解码宇宙微波背景测量的新技术，并为支持暴胀和暗能量的大规模结构探测器发展理论基础。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 funds the research activities of Professors Marc Kamionkowski and David E. Kaplan at Johns Hopkins University.The search to understand the fundamental laws of physics is at an exciting but uncertain time. While we eagerly await the discovery of new physics at the LHC or with the next decade of dark-matter searches, existing null results have forced theorists to discard old prejudices and think deeply about entirely new ideas for fundamental physics and novel experimental avenues to seek new physics. Recent developments in observational/experimental cosmology provide the exciting prospect of opening wholly new windows to the very earliest Universe and of understanding the physics driving the accelerated cosmic expansion and the nature of dark matter. The research of Kamionkowski and Kaplan tackles central problems at the juncture of theory and experiment in particle physics and cosmology. Their work will advance new ideas for cosmological observations and fundamental-physics searches, and they will propose new mechanisms and models that may ultimately help in the grand synthesis of nature's laws. This research will proceed hand in hand with the training of students and postdocs who will become scientific leaders in subsequent generations, and the group will remain vigorous in its quest to communicate the excitement of particle physics and cosmology to the general public. Theoretical research along these lines advances the national interest by optimizing our investment in major experimental facilities in their quest to understand new physical laws.More technically, Kaplan will develop new non-accelerator directions for exploring the fundamental laws of nature while pushing to pursue a deeper understanding of the phenomena we see. Kamionkowski will develop novel ways to search for new physics with astrophysical observations and non-accelerator experiments. He will study new ideas for dark energy, develop novel techniques to decode cosmic microwave background measurements, and develop theoretical underpinnings to support large-scale-structure probes of inflation and dark energy.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.