Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and New Physics

该奖项资助犹他大学保罗·贡多罗教授和珀尔·桑迪克教授的研究活动和外展/社区参与计划。宇宙中70%以上的能量和80%以上的物质的性质尚不清楚。这种所谓的“暗能量”和“暗物质”的性质是物理学、天体物理学和宇宙学中的一个重大悬而未决的问题。暗物质和暗能量目前只能通过它们产生的引力来探测。确定暗物质和暗能量的性质可能会产生广泛的影响，就像哥白尼革命将地球在宇宙中的位置从中心移开一样，这一次是通过将构成人类的物质降为少数。这一领域的研究通过促进科学最基本的方面之一的进步来促进国家利益：发现我们物理宇宙的性质和组成。在他们的研究中，贡多罗教授和桑迪克教授的目标是加深我们对暗物质的理解，并提高我们根据可观察到的效应对各种提出的理论观点进行分类的能力。他们还旨在通过探索具有相同性质的组件的新引力系统来加深我们对暗能量的理解。预计该项目还将产生更广泛的重大影响。这些措施包括教育和激发当地非学术社区的科学知识，以及培训职业早期的科学家。该项目还将支持当地一家科学博物馆和当地学校的一个长期且成功的外展计划-一个旨在以有趣、充满活力和引人入胜的方式吸引数千名年轻学生的计划-从而最终增加能够用基本科学知识解决我们时代重大问题的负责任的公民和领导人的数量。与此同时，该项目通过犹他大学、更广泛的社区和国家层面的一套外展和专业发展项目，支持招募和留住有才华的女性和少数族裔的努力。在技术上，贡多罗和桑迪克教授将开展具有共同要素的个人研究项目。他们将(A)探索宇宙中暗物质和暗能量的理论解释，以及粒子物理标准模型以外的新粒子物理理论；以及(B)确定并提出确定暗物质和潜在的其他新物理的可靠策略。这些目标将通过多种方式实现：通过对最小超对称标准模型和其他简化模型中对撞机和暗物质特征的现象学研究，开发DarkSUSY软件以涵盖通用的弱相互作用质量粒子(WIMP)模型，追求暗物质的粒子物理和天体物理中最小数量的假设(特别是与天体物理学无关的方法和一般相互作用滞后)，以及分析具有负压(暗能量的一个特征)的广义相对论自引力系统。该奖项反映了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 and outreach/community-engagement programs of Professors Paolo Gondolo and Pearl Sandick at the University of Utah. The nature of more than 70% of the energy in the universe and of more than 80% of its matter is unknown. The nature of this so-called "dark energy" and "dark matter" is a major open question in physics, astrophysics, and cosmology. Dark matter and dark energy have currently been detected only by means of the gravity they generate. Establishing the nature of dark matter and dark energy may have implications as wide as the Copernican revolution that moved the Earth's place in the Universe away from its center, this time by relegating the material substance of which humans are made to a minority component. Research in this area advances the national interest by promoting the progress of science in one of its most fundamental aspects: discovering the nature and composition of our physical universe. In their research, Professors Gondolo and Sandick aim to further our understanding of dark matter and advance our ability to sort various proposed theoretical ideas on the basis of their observable effects. They also aim to further our understanding of dark energy by exploring novel gravitational systems with components of the same nature. This project is also envisioned to have significant broader impacts. These include educating and exciting the local non-academic community about science as well as training early-career scientists. This project will also support a longstanding and successful outreach program at a local science museum and in local schools --- a program that reaches thousands of young students with the goal of attracting them to science in a fun, energetic, and engaging way --- so as to ultimately increase the number of responsible citizens and leaders who can address the major issues of our time with basic scientific knowledge. At the same time, this project supports efforts to recruit and retain talented women and minorities in the physical sciences through a suite of outreach and professional-development programs at the University of Utah, in the broader community, and at the national level.Technically, Professors Gondolo and Sandick will conduct individual research programs with elements in common. They will (a) explore theoretical explanations for the dark matter and dark energy in the Universe and for theories of new particle physics beyond the Standard Model of particle physics; and (b) determine and suggest robust strategies for the identification of dark matter and, potentially, other new physics. These objectives will be achieved in many ways: through phenomenological studies of collider and dark-matter signatures in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model and in other simplified models, the development of the DarkSUSY software to cover generic weakly-interacting massive particle (WIMP) models, the pursuit of a minimal number of assumptions in the particle physics and astrophysics of dark matter (specifically astrophysics-independent methods and general interaction lagrangians), and the analysis of general-relativistic self-gravitating systems with negative pressure (a characteristic of 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.