Explorations in Particle Theory and Cosmology

该奖项资助马里兰大学帕克分校考斯图布·阿加什教授、扎卡里亚·查科教授、拉宾德拉·N·莫哈帕特拉教授和拉曼·桑德鲁姆教授的研究活动。他们的工作将在相对论和量子力学的交界处开发新的理论机制和模型，并为不同领域的实验探索产生新的模板。实验前沿从在CERN大型强子对撞机和未来的对撞机上寻找新粒子，到暗物质探测实验，到宇宙微波背景和宇宙大尺度结构中的粒子物理特征，再到从早期宇宙相变中寻找引力波。这项研究旨在提高我们对自然科学根本规律的理解，从而有利于国家利益和我们的科学文明。在他们的研究中，主要研究人员将研究几个最有希望超越粒子物理标准模型的理论框架，其中包括：(A)额外的时空扭曲维度，(B)具有类似标准模型结构和镜像对称性的“镜面扇区”，(C)“左-右”对称结构。他们还将研究中微子的物理学和宇宙学，以及“宇宙膨胀”的模型，“宇宙膨胀”是早期宇宙的快速增长。预计该项目还将产生更广泛的重大影响。PIS将让研究生和博士后参与他们的研究，从而为开始这一领域研究的初级物理学家提供关键培训。他们还打算在公共和高中讲授他们的研究成果，并帮助为科学媒体开发材料。在技术上，阿加什教授和桑德鲁姆教授将探索早期宇宙中扭曲的超维相变的物理学，它的引力波和对撞机现象学，以及它在产生所观察到的物质/反物质不对称中的作用。桑德鲁姆教授还将发展与最新的精密宇宙学数据兼容的高尺度宇宙膨胀理论。莫哈帕特拉教授将研究左右对称情形对味道物理、中微子物理和物质/反物质不对称的可能影响。Chacko教授将研究中微子的物理学，在这种情况下，中微子与复合性、依赖时间的耦合或与轻Goldstone玻色子的耦合有关。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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 Kaustubh Agashe, Zackaria Chacko, Rabindra N. Mohapatra and Raman Sundrum at the University of Maryland, College Park. Their work will develop new theoretical mechanisms and models at the juncture of Relativity and Quantum Mechanics, and result in new templates for experimental exploration in diverse arenas. The experimental frontier ranges from searches for new particles at the CERN Large Hadron Collider and future colliders, to Dark Matter detection experiments, to particle physics signatures in the Cosmic Microwave Background and Large Scale Structure in the universe, to searches for gravitational waves from early universe phase transitions. This research seeks to improve our understanding of the fundamental laws of nature, lying at the root of the natural sciences, and thereby to benefit the national interest and our scientific civilization. In their research, the principal investigators will study several of the most promising theoretical frameworks for going beyond the standard model of particle physics, in which it is augmented by (a) extra 'warped' dimensions of spacetime, (b) 'mirror sectors' with similar structure to the standard model and mirror symmetries that relate them, (c) 'left-right' symmetric structure. They will also study the physics and cosmology of neutrinos, as well as models of "cosmic inflation", the growth spurt of the early universe. This project is also envisioned to have significant broader impacts. The PIs will involve graduate students and postdocs in their research, and thereby provide critical training for junior physicists beginning research in this field. They also intend to give public and high school lectures on their research results and aid in the development of materials for the scientific media. More technically, Professors Agashe and Sundrum will explore the physics of the warped extra-dimensional phase transition in the early universe, and its gravitational wave and collider phenomenology, as well as its role in generating the observed matter/antimatter asymmetry. Professor Sundrum will also develop theories of high-scale cosmic inflation compatible with the most recent precision cosmological data. The left-right symmetric scenario will be studied by Professor Mohapatra for its possible impact on flavor physics, neutrino physics and the matter/antimatter asymmetry. The physics of neutrinos will be studied by Professor Chacko in scenarios in which they are associated with compositeness, time-dependent couplings, or couplings to light Goldstone bosons.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.