Strings, Gravity and Strongly Coupled Matter

弦、引力和强耦合物质

• 批准号: 2210271
• 负责人: Sera Cremonini
• 金额: $ 41.5万
• 依托单位: Lehigh University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-07-15 至 2025-06-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2210271&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Strings; Gravity; Strongly; Coupled; Matter

This award funds the research activities of Professors Sera Cremonini and Timm Wrase at Lehigh University. One of the key challenges behind understanding the beginning of the universe and the behavior of gravity at the smallest scales is that the gravitational force appears to be inherently different from the remaining interactions in nature. While the other interactions have descriptions that are consistent with quantum mechanics at the smallest scales, the gravitational interaction does not have such a description. String theory is currently the leading framework for the unification of gravity with quantum mechanics. As part of their research, Professors Cremonini and Wrase aim to further our understanding of string theory and address longstanding fundamental questions about the basic interactions in nature and the cosmological history of our universe. In recent years it has become increasingly clear that string theory and generically any theory of gravity that is consistent with quantum mechanics will necessarily leave imprints on physics at much larger distances and lower energies. An important part of this research is to carefully understand such imprints and how they might affect both the early and current evolution of the universe, including the nature of dark energy, and basic properties of black holes. Moreover, string theory has led to powerful techniques that can be applied to study a wide spectrum of poorly understood quantum phases of matter. These range from the primordial soup of quarks and gluons a few millionths of a second after the Big Bang to materials with unusual electronic properties such as high-temperature superconductors. Indeed, the development of such materials will lead to new technologies which can have a significant impact on society, and is therefore in the national interest. A key aspect of this research will exploit these novel techniques to better understand the basic mechanisms underlying such unconventional phases of matter, which is crucial to really realize their technological potential. This project also has significant broader impacts. Professors Cremonini and Wrase plan to incorporate their research developments into their teaching and education efforts on a regular basis. They will also involve graduate students and postdocs in their research, thus providing training for junior scientists at a critical stage in their careers. Finally, they plan to engage broad and diverse audiences through frequent public lectures as well as activities aimed at K-12 students.On a more technical level, the research projects that Professors Cremonini and Wrase will investigate will involve a number of complementary approaches to examine fundamental questions about the nature of gravity as well as various phenomenological aspects of string theory and of strongly interacting quantum systems. In particular, they will explore constraints on low-energy effective field theories and black holes by refining and extending various so-called "swampland" conjectures. This will lead to deeper insights into string theory in general, as well as to an improved theoretical understanding of less-understood features of our own universe, like dark energy or neutrino masses. Professor Wrase will also investigate basic aspects of string phenomenology, as well as the properties of non-supersymmetric string theories and early-universe cosmology. Professor Wrase's work on models of inflation based on alpha-attractors provides some of the most promising targets for on-going and future experiments that measure the polarization of the CMB and search for signals of large-field inflationary models. By contrast, through the use of holographic techniques, Professor Cremonini's research will shed new light on the dynamics of the strongly correlated phases of matter relevant to a wide array of materials in nature which are notoriously challenging to understand with conventional methods. Throughout, the focus will be on identifying generic signatures of symmetry breaking in these unconventional systems. Finally, as part of a new collaborative effort, Professor Cremonini will also test some of the results and predictions of holography for non-Fermi liquids using ultracold atoms as quantum simulators.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.

该奖项资助了理哈伊大学塞拉·克雷莫尼尼教授和蒂姆·莱斯教授的研究活动。理解宇宙起源和引力在最小尺度上的行为背后的关键挑战之一是，引力似乎与自然界中剩余的相互作用有着内在的不同。虽然其他相互作用的描述在最小尺度上与量子力学一致，但引力相互作用没有这样的描述。弦理论目前是引力与量子力学统一的主要框架。作为研究的一部分，Cremonini教授和Wrase教授的目标是进一步加深我们对弦理论的理解，并解决有关自然界基本相互作用和宇宙宇宙学历史的长期基本问题。近年来，人们越来越清楚地认识到，弦理论和任何与量子力学相一致的引力理论，必然会在更大的距离和更低的能量上给物理学留下印记。这项研究的一个重要部分是仔细了解这些印记，以及它们如何影响宇宙的早期和当前的演化，包括暗能量的本质和黑洞的基本特性。此外，弦理论带来了强大的技术，可以应用于研究物质的量子相的广泛范围。这些物质的范围从宇宙大爆炸后百万分之一秒的原始夸克和胶子汤到具有不寻常电子特性的材料，如高温超导体。事实上，这些材料的发展将导致对社会产生重大影响的新技术，因此符合国家利益。这项研究的一个关键方面是利用这些新技术来更好地理解这种非常规物质相的基本机制，这对真正实现它们的技术潜力至关重要。该项目还具有重大的更广泛的影响。Cremonini教授和Wrase教授计划将他们的研究成果定期纳入他们的教学和教育工作。他们还将让研究生和博士后参与研究，从而为处于职业生涯关键阶段的年轻科学家提供培训。最后，他们计划通过频繁的公开讲座和针对K-12学生的活动来吸引广泛和多样化的受众。在更技术性的层面上，Cremonini教授和Wrase教授将研究的研究项目将涉及许多互补的方法，以研究有关引力本质的基本问题，以及弦理论和强相互作用量子系统的各种现象学方面的问题。特别是，他们将通过精炼和扩展各种所谓的“沼泽”猜想来探索低能量有效场论和黑洞的限制。这将导致对弦理论更深入的了解，以及对我们自己的宇宙中不太了解的特征（如暗能量或中微子质量）的理论理解。Wrase教授还将研究弦现象学的基本方面，以及非超对称弦理论和早期宇宙宇宙学的性质。Wrase教授在基于α吸引子的暴胀模型上的工作为正在进行的和未来的实验提供了一些最有希望的目标，这些实验测量了CMB的极化，并寻找了大场暴胀模型的信号。相比之下，通过使用全息技术，克雷莫尼尼教授的研究将揭示与自然界中各种材料相关的强相关相的动力学，这些物质以传统方法难以理解而闻名。在整个过程中，重点将放在识别这些非常规系统中对称破缺的一般特征上。最后，作为新的合作项目的一部分，克雷莫尼尼教授还将使用超冷原子作为量子模拟器来测试非费米液体全息成像的一些结果和预测。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。