Physics at the Frontier: Colliders to Cosmology

该奖项资助纽约州立大学布法罗分校的威尔·金尼、德扬·斯托伊科维奇、多琳·瓦克罗思和西亚伦·威廉姆斯教授的研究活动。PI将进行一项广泛的研究计划，旨在为粒子物理、宇宙学和引力研究的前沿领域的关键开放问题提供答案。将研究的课题范围很广，包括宇宙膨胀物理学、黑洞物理学、暗能量物理学(据信是推动宇宙加速膨胀的原因)、希格斯玻色子的性质，以及研究大型强子对撞机(LHC)和未来加速器的强相互作用及其影响的理论。这项研究与美国国家科学基金会的使命一致，即通过开展旨在扩大我们对宇宙的起源和结构以及基本粒子和场的性质的理解的研究，促进科学进步和增进国家福利。作为这项研究的一部分，Kinney、Stojkovic、Wackeroth和Williams教授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培训。PIS还将继续进行公众宣传，包括公开讲座、天文馆表演、与媒体和其他媒体的互动，以及现已进入第十二季的科学与艺术卡巴莱系列。更严格地说，金尼的研究将涉及在早期宇宙物理学的背景下调查所谓的“沼泽地”标准。他还将寻求通过对宇宙微波背景和大尺度结构的新观测来限制膨胀的物理学，并(与斯托伊科维奇合作)探索哈勃张力的可能解决方案。斯托伊科维奇将继续开发一个综合的事件发生器BlackMax，目前大型强子对撞机合作小组正在使用它来寻找奇异的物理。斯托伊科维奇还将与Wackeroth和Williams合作，探索与虚假希格斯-真空衰变和其他宇宙学相变相关的气泡产生的伽马射线和中微子特征。斯托伊科维奇还将研究对一大类修正重力模型施加观测强透镜约束。Wackeroth将专注于W和Z玻色子产生的混合QCD-电弱(EW)校正，这与高精度W质量测量相关。Wackeroth还将对SM过程提供改进的预测，这将允许对顶夸克和四次弱电自作用的非标准相互作用进行新的测试。威廉姆斯将计算与b喷注相关的希格斯产生的NNLO修正，还将计算H到BB过程的混合QCD-EW项，并使用结果来约束未来轻子对撞机可能达到的底部夸克汤川耦合的最终精度。这一裁决反映了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 Will Kinney, Dejan Stojkovic, Doreen Wackeroth, and Ciaran Williams at the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York. The PIs will conduct a wide-ranging research program which aims to provide answers to key open questions at the frontier of particle physics, cosmology, and gravity research. Research topics to be investigated span a large range, including the physics of cosmological inflation, the physics of black holes, the physics of Dark Energy (which is believed responsible for driving accelerated cosmological expansion), the properties of the Higgs boson, and studies of the theory that underlies the strong interaction and its effects at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and at future accelerators. This research aligns with NSF's mission to promote the progress of science and advance the national welfare by performing research aimed at extending our understanding of the origin and structure of the universe, and the properties of fundamental particles and fields. As part of this research, Professors Kinney, Stojkovic, Wackeroth, and Williams will involve graduate students and postdocs in their research and thereby provide training for junior physicists beginning research in this field. The PIs will also continue to conduct public outreach, including public lectures, planetarium shows, interactions with the press and other media, and the Science & Art Cabaret series, now in its twelfth season. More technically, Kinney's research will involve investigation of so-called "swampland" criteria in the context of early-universe physics. He will also seek to constrain the physics of inflation with new observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background and Large-scale Structure, and (in collaboration with Stojkovic) explore possible resolutions of the Hubble tension. Stojkovic will continue the development of a comprehensive event generator BlackMax which is currently used by the LHC collaborations in searches for exotic physics. In collaboration with Wackeroth and Williams, Stojkovic will also explore the gamma-ray and neutrino signatures of bubble production associated with false Higgs-vacuum decay and other cosmological phase transitions. Stojkovic will also study the imposition of observational strong-lensing constraints on a wide class of modified-gravity models. Wackeroth will focus on mixed QCD-Electroweak (EW) corrections to W and Z boson production, which is relevant for a high-precision W-mass measurement. Wackeroth will also provide improved predictions for SM processes which will allow for new tests of non-standard interactions of the top quark and the quartic electroweak self-interactions. Williams will calculate NNLO corrections to Higgs production in association with a b-jet, and will also calculate the mixed QCD-EW terms for the H-to-bb process and use the results to constrain the ultimate precision for the bottom-quark Yukawa coupling which may be reached at future lepton colliders.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.