Physics at the Frontier: From Colliders to Cosmology

该奖项资助纽约州立大学布法罗分校的威尔·金尼、德扬·斯托伊科维奇、多琳·瓦克罗思和西亚伦·威廉姆斯教授的研究活动。PI将进行一项广泛的研究计划，旨在为粒子物理、宇宙学和引力研究的前沿领域的关键开放问题提供答案。研究课题包括宇宙膨胀物理学、黑洞物理学、暗能量、希格斯玻色子的性质，以及对大型强子对撞机和未来加速器的精确预测。这项研究与NSF促进科学进步和增进国家福利的使命是一致的，因为它旨在扩大我们对宇宙的起源和结构，以及基本粒子和场的性质的理解。该小组还将让学生参与他们的研究，从而为开始这一领域研究的初级物理学家提供培训。PIS将继续进行公众宣传，包括公开讲座、天文馆表演、与媒体和其他媒体的互动，以及与现已进入第十二季的科学与艺术卡巴莱系列的接触。更严格地说，金尼教授的研究将涉及在早期宇宙物理学的背景下对所谓的“沼泽地”标准进行调查。他将通过对宇宙微波背景和大尺度结构的新观测来约束膨胀物理，并探索哈勃恒定张力的解决方案。斯托伊科维奇教授将继续开发综合事件产生器BlackMax，目前大型强子对撞机合作小组正在使用它来寻找奇异的物理。他还将研究宇宙学相变的可观测结果，并将类星体确立为标准蜡烛。Wackeroth教授将专注于为大型强子对撞机上涉及弱电(EW)规范玻色子的各种过程提供改进的预测，以提高SM的精度测试对新物理信号的敏感度。这将通过计算高阶电弱和QCD辐射修正，以及通过研究概念问题，如Q启动过程中重夸克(Q)质量的处理来实现。Wackeroth教授还将研究电子波修正对与未来中微子实验相关的低能中微子-核子散射过程的影响。最后，威廉姆斯教授将开发多回路计算的新技术，这将允许计算双光子产生的混合QCD-EW修正。威廉姆斯教授将在双圈有序下计算夸克和胶子引发的通道。胶子通道将允许以此顺序确定希格斯-连续谱干涉的EW校正，从而在LHC产生最精确的希格斯干涉测量研究。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 Will Kinney, Dejan Stojkovic, Doreen Wackeroth, and Ciaran Williams at the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York. The PIs will conduct a wide-ranging research program which aims to provide answers to key open questions at the frontier of particle physics, cosmology, and gravity research. Research topics include the physics of cosmological inflation, the physics of black holes, Dark Energy, the properties of the Higgs boson, and precision predictions for the Large Hadron Collider and future accelerators. This research aligns with NSF's mission to promote the progress of science and advance the national welfare as it is aimed at extending our understanding of the origin and structure of the universe, and the properties of fundamental particles and fields. The group will also involve students in their research, and thereby provide training for junior physicists beginning research in this field. The PIs will continue to conduct public outreach, including public lectures, planetarium shows, interactions with the press and other media, and engagement with the Science & Art Cabaret series, now in its twelfth season. More technically, Professor Kinney's research will involve investigation of so-called "swampland" criteria within the context of early universe physics. He will constrain the physics of inflation with new observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background and Large-Scale Structure, and explore resolutions to the Hubble constant tension. Professor Stojkovic will continue the development of the comprehensive event generator BlackMax which is currently used by the LHC collaborations in searches for exotic physics. He will also investigate observable consequences of cosmological phase transitions, and establish quasars as standard candles. Professor Wackeroth will focus on providing improved predictions for a variety of processes involving electroweak (EW) gauge bosons at the LHC in order to increase the sensitivity of precision tests of the SM to signals of new physics. This will be achieved by calculating higher-order electroweak and QCD radiative corrections and by working on conceptional problems such as the treatment of the heavy quark (Q) mass in Q-initiated processes. Professor Wackeroth will also study the impact of EW corrections on low-energy neutrino-Nucleon scattering processes relevant to future neutrino experiments. Finally, Professor Williams will develop new techniques for multi-loop calculations which will allow for the calculation of the Mixed QCD-EW corrections to di-photon production. Professor Williams will compute both the quark initiated and gluon initiated channel at two-loop order. The gluon channel will allow for a determination of the EW corrections to the Higgs-continuum interference at this order, thereby yielding the most precise possible studies of Higgs interferometry at the LHC.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.