LEAPS-MPS: Searching for the Dark Side of the Universe with Gravitational Waves

该奖项全部或部分由《2021年美国救援计划法案》（公法117-2）资助。基本粒子和宇宙学的标准模型非常好地描述了宇宙从大爆炸后一万亿分之一秒到现在的演化过程。尽管取得了巨大的成功，但仍有几个基本问题没有得到解答：暗物质是什么？为什么宇宙中的物质比反物质多？为什么中微子质量很大？要解开这些谜团，我们需要了解大爆炸后万亿分之一秒之前发生了什么。直到最近，第一次成功探测到引力波才为我们提供了能够深入宇宙历史的工具。一个原始的随机引力波背景，虽然还没有被发现，但预计会携带关于宇宙早期的精确信息，这也是本提案的主题。该奖项支持Barry大学的Fornal博士构建和研究标准模型的良好扩展，以解决粒子物理学中的突出问题（暗物质，物质-反物质不对称和中微子质量），这些问题可以在当前和未来的引力波实验中进行测试。该项目将通过计划中的外展活动，为提高知识水平、培养熟悉复杂数学方法的下一代科学家和高度专业化的专业人员，以及向非科学家传播物理思想做出重大贡献。鉴于巴里大学的性别和人口多样性，该项目将显著影响妇女和科学界中代表性不足的其他群体，她们将接受培训并获得技能，为科学高级学位课程做好准备，提高她们在学术和工业就业市场上的竞争力，并提高她们进入博士课程的录取率。该项目的目标是在引力波探测器中可获得的最具吸引力的基本粒子模型的参数空间与可在其他实验中探测的参数空间之间产生映射。所考虑的新粒子物理模型是假设的，但他们的预测将在当前和即将到来的引力波实验中得到验证。结合引力波探测器的积极信号，这个项目的结果将为理解宇宙的结构提供一个突破。教育目标是在巴里大学本科生中建立一个充满活力和创造力的年轻物理研究小组。此外，通过在美国物理学会的国际会议和会议上展示成果，这些学生将接触到在STEM领域工作的世界级科学家，这将为他们提供各种职业交流机会。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。

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). The Standard Model of elementary particles and cosmology describes remarkably well the evolution of the Universe starting from one-trillionth of a second after the Big Bang up to the present day. Despite this huge success, several fundamental questions remain unanswered: What is dark matter? Why is there more matter than antimatter in the Universe? Why are neutrinos massive? Solving these mysteries requires an understanding of what happened before one-trillionth of a second after the Big Bang. The tool enabling us to dive this far back into the Universe's history has only recently been provided by the first successful detection of gravitational waves. A primordial stochastic gravitational wave background, although not yet discovered, is expected to carry information precisely about the very early period of the Universe and is the subject of this proposal. This award supports Dr. Fornal at Barry University to construct and investigate well-motivated extensions of the Standard Model which solve the outstanding problems in particle physics (Dark matter, Matter-antimatter asymmetry, and Neutrino masses) which can be tested in present and future gravitational wave experiments. The project will provide substantial contributions to advancing knowledge, training future generations of scientists and highly specialized professionals acquainted with sophisticated mathematical methods and conveying physics ideas to nonscientists through the planned outreach activities. Given the gender and demographic diversity of Barry University, the project will significantly affect women and other groups underrepresented in the scientific community, who will receive training and acquire skills preparing them for advanced-degree programs in science, increasing their competitiveness on the academic and industrial job market, and improving their admission rate into doctoral programs.The goal of the project is to produce a mapping between the parameter space of the most attractive models of elementary particles accessible in gravitational wave detectors, and the parameter space which can be probed in other experiments. The new particle physics models considered are hypothetical, but their predictions will be verifiable in current and upcoming gravitational wave experiments. Combined with a positive signal from gravitational wave detectors, the results of this project would provide a breakthrough in understanding the structure of the Universe. The educational goal is to establish an energetic and creative group of young physics researchers among Barry University undergraduates. In addition, through presenting the results at international conferences and meetings of the American Physical Society, those students will be exposed to world-class scientists working in STEM fields, which will offer them various career networking opportunities.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.