Explorations in Particle Theory and Cosmology

该奖项资助了马里兰大学帕克分校的Kaustubh Agashe、Zackaria Chacko、Rabindra N. Mohapatra和Raman Sundrum教授的研究活动。他们的工作将在相对论和量子力学的结合点上发展新的理论机制和模型，并为不同领域的实验探索提供新的模板。实验前沿包括在欧洲核子研究中心的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，到寻找早期宇宙相变的引力波。这项研究旨在提高我们对自然科学基础上的自然基本规律的认识，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前途的理论框架，以超越粒子物理学的标准模型，在标准模型中，它被(a)额外的时空“弯曲”维度，(b)与标准模型结构相似的“镜像扇区”和与之相关的镜像对称性，(c)“左右”对称结构所增强。他们还将研究中微子的物理学和宇宙学，以及“宇宙膨胀”模型，即早期宇宙的井喷式增长。预计该项目还将产生更广泛的重大影响。pi将涉及研究生和博士后的研究，从而为初级物理学家开始在该领域的研究提供重要的培训。他们还打算就他们的研究成果进行公开和高中讲座，并帮助为科学媒体开发材料。从技术上讲，agheshe教授和Sundrum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，以及它在产生观测到的物质/反物质不对称中的作用。Sundrum教授还将发展与最新精确宇宙学数据兼容的高尺度宇宙暴胀理论。Mohapatra教授将研究左右对称情况对风味物理、中微子物理和物质/反物质不对称的可能影响。Chacko教授将在以下情况下研究中微子的物理学：它们与复合性、时变耦合或与光Goldstone玻色子的耦合有关。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 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.