Physics at the Frontier: From Colliders to Cosmology

该奖项资助了纽约州立大学布法罗大学的Will Kinney，Dejan Stojkovic，Doreen Wackeroth和Ciaran威廉姆斯教授的研究活动。PI将进行广泛的研究计划，旨在为粒子物理学，宇宙学和引力研究前沿的关键开放问题提供答案。 研究主题包括宇宙膨胀的物理学，黑洞的物理学，暗能量，希格斯玻色子的性质，以及大型强子对撞机和未来加速器的精确预测。 这项研究符合NSF的使命，以促进科学的进步和推进国家福利，因为它的目的是扩大我们对宇宙的起源和结构的理解，以及基本粒子和场的性质。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。 PI将继续进行公共宣传，包括公开讲座，天文馆展示，与新闻界和其他媒体的互动，以及与科学艺术歌舞表演系列的互动，现在已经进入第十二季。 从技术上讲，Kinney教授的研究将涉及在早期宇宙物理学背景下对所谓的“沼泽地”标准的调查。 他将通过对宇宙微波背景和大尺度结构的新观测来约束通货膨胀的物理学，并探索哈勃常数张力的解决方案。 Stojkovic教授将继续开发综合事件生成器BlackMax，该生成器目前被LHC合作用于搜索奇异物理。他还将研究宇宙学相变的可观察结果，并建立类星体作为标准烛光。 Wackeroth教授将专注于为LHC中涉及电弱（EW）规范玻色子的各种过程提供改进的预测，以提高SM精密测试对新物理信号的灵敏度。这将通过计算高阶电弱和QCD辐射修正以及处理Q引发过程中的重夸克（Q）质量等概念问题来实现。 Wackeroth教授还将研究EW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新的多回路计算技术，这将允许计算混合QCD-EW校正双光子的产生。 威廉姆斯教授将计算两圈级的夸克和胶子引发的通道。胶子通道将允许在这个顺序上确定对希格斯连续谱干扰的EW修正，从而在LHC上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，并被认为值得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来支持。

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.