Particle Physics, Gravity and Cosmology

该奖项为马萨诸塞州阿默斯特大学的John Donoghue、Ben Heidenreich和Lorenzo Sorbo教授的研究活动提供资金。我们这个时代的关键挑战之一是理解量子力学如何与引力结合在一起，并弄清楚如何测试这种结合。该基金资助的研究将有助于我们理解这种联系并对其进行测试。Donoghue和Heidenreich教授有单独的研究项目来理解量子物理学和引力。Sorbo教授研究了这些想法和其他想法如何在宇宙历史中表现出来。预计该项目还将产生更广泛的重要影响。Donoghue教授和Sorbo教授正在准备一本关于量子场论的入门教材，量子场论是粒子物理学的语言。 本文将由普林斯顿大学出版社出版。 指导研究生研究人员也是这项研究的一个重要组成部分。更技术性的是，Donoghue教授将继续他对二次引力的研究，其中基本理论包含曲率平方的因素。 海登赖希教授将通过沼泽地计划研究量子引力，寻找引力终极理论的明确约束。 最后，Sorbo教授将探索暴胀现象学的许多方面，同时保持与激光干涉空间天线（丽莎）实验计划的合作。该奖项反映了NSF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 John Donoghue, Ben Heidenreich, and Lorenzo Sorbo at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.One of the crucial challenges of our time is to understand how quantum mechanics fits together with gravity, and to figure out how to test this combination. This grant funds research which will both help us understand this connection and test it. Professors Donoghue and Heidenreich have separate research programs to understand quantum physics and gravity. Professor Sorbo studies how these ideas and others can be manifest in the history of the universe. This project is also envisioned to have important broader impacts. Professors Donoghue and Sorbo are preparing an introductory text on the subject of quantum field theory, which is the language of particle physics. This text will be published by Princeton University Press. Mentoring of graduate student researchers is also a key component of this research.More technically, Professor Donoghue will continue his study of Quadratic Gravity, in which the fundamental theory contains factors of the curvature-squared. Professor Heidenreich will investigate quantum gravity through the swampland program, looking for well-defined constraints on the ultimate theory of gravity. Finally, Professor Sorbo will explore many aspects of inflationary phenomenology while maintaining his collaboration with the Laser Interferometry Space Antenna (LISA) experimental program.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.