Towards New Discoveries in Particle Physics and Cosmology

该奖项资助马里兰大学帕克分校考斯图布·阿加什教授、扎卡里亚·查科教授、安森·胡克教授和拉曼·桑德鲁姆教授的研究活动。它还包括马里兰大学的查科和桑德鲁姆教授与以色列特拉维夫大学的迈克尔·盖勒教授之间的NSF-BSF合作。主要研究人员将开发和研究新的理论，以扩展粒子物理学和宇宙学的标准模型，并考虑到三个主要目标。一是提供有根有据的理论模板，指导基础物理实验。从欧洲核子研究中心的大型强子对撞机和未来能够创造奇异新粒子的粒子对撞机，到对中微子等已知粒子性质的高精度研究，到宇宙最早阶段及其神秘“暗物质”成分的一线宇宙学、天体物理学和引力波探测器。第二个目标是在量子力学、相对论和引力的交叉点上进一步深入研究理论，寻找新的基本原理。第三个目标是促进学生和博士后研究人员的教学、培训和学习，并与更广泛的社区分享研究的兴奋。自然界的基本定律是所有自然科学的根本，因此，该项目的前沿研究及其成果的广泛传播将有利于国家利益和我们的现代文明。更严格地说，主要研究人员将研究扭曲的额外维度范例(及其粒子组成方面的ADS/CFT对偶)的多个新方面，包括它的早期宇宙相变和引力波信号、物质/反物质不对称、中微子质量的产生和性质、暴胀、暗扇区动力学和对撞机现象。引力波宇宙学将被用来探索早期宇宙的状态方程和热历史。将开发一种在极化的CMB中检测轴子弦的策略。将研究暗物质与暗辐射相互作用的新的可能结构，并将其应用于当前的宇宙学异常。将开发在原始不均匀结构(如大型结构)上留下极重粒子印记(远远超出对撞机可及范围)的新可能性。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 of Professors Kaustubh Agashe, Zackaria Chacko, Anson Hook and Raman Sundrum at the University of Maryland, College Park. It also includes a NSF-BSF collaboration, between Professors Chacko and Sundrum at the University of Maryland and Professor Michael Geller at Tel Aviv University in Israel. The principal investigators will develop and study new theories that extend the standard model of particle physics and cosmology, with three primary goals in mind. The first is to provide well-founded theoretical templates to guide experiments in fundamental physics. These range from the CERN Large Hadron Collider and future particle colliders capable of creating exotic new particles, to high-precision studies of the properties of known particles such as the neutrino, to frontline cosmological, astrophysical, and gravitational wave probes of the universe’s earliest phases and of its mysterious “dark matter” components. The second goal is to delve further into theory at the intersection of quantum mechanics, relativity and gravitation, in search of new fundamental principles. The third goal is to promote teaching, training and learning among students and postdoctoral researchers, and sharing the excitement of the research with the broader community. The fundamental laws of nature lie at the root of all the natural sciences, and therefore the cutting-edge research in this project and the broad dissemination of its findings will benefit the national interest and our modern civilization.More technically, the principal investigators will study multiple new aspects of the warped extra dimensions paradigm (and its AdS/CFT dual in terms of particle compositeness), including its early universe phase transition and gravitational wave signals, the matter/antimatter asymmetry, neutrino mass generation and properties, inflation, dark sector dynamics, and collider phenomenology. Gravitational wave cosmology will be developed to probe the early universe’s equation of state and thermal history. A strategy to detect axionic strings in the polarized CMB will be developed. New possible structures for dark matter interacting with dark radiation will be studied and applied to current cosmological anomalies. New possibilities for imprints of extremely heavy particles (far beyond collider reach) on primordial inhomogeneities, such as large scale structure, will be developed.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.