Lattice Gauge Theory at the Intensity Frontier

该奖项资助了犹他州大学Carleton DeTar教授的研究活动，我们目前对自然界中最基本的基本粒子和相互作用的理解被封装在“标准模型”中。然而，这个理论是不完整的。 例如，它无法解释弥漫在宇宙中的暗物质。因此，物理学家几乎普遍认为，还有更多的基本粒子和相互作用有待发现。一个大型的实验研究正在加速器上进行，如欧洲大型强子对撞机，以寻找新的粒子。即使加速器的能量不够高，无法发现它们，它们也会通过仔细的测量和基于标准模型的精确理论预测之间的差异来揭示它们的存在。只有当预测量的残余不确定性随着实验测量精度的提高而降低时，这种比较才是有效的。DeTar教授和他的合作者正在使用最强大的计算机和代码来进行精确的预测，这些预测可以与实验测量结果进行比较，特别注意那些已经发现了一些诱人的差异的情况。这项工作符合国家利益，因为它促进了我们对自然界最基本规律的理解。 这项工作的更广泛的影响包括培训学生和博士后研究人员编程和使用最高性能的计算机，管理大型数据集，以及统计分析和提取物理上重要的信息。 这方面的经验应准备学生和博士后研究助理的工作，利用这些技能，无论是在工业以及学术settings.More技术，这个多年的项目将使用数值晶格量子色动力学的方法在一个精确的研究重夸克衰变的强子环境-特别是底夸克。由此产生的强子衰变常数和形状因子，然后结合测量的介子衰变包含这些重夸克。该项目还将计算强相互作用对μ子异常磁矩的贡献。 强子真空极化的结果值将与正在进行的高精度磁矩实验测量结果进行比较。 这两种比较都对标准模型的一致性和对新物理学理论模型的约束提供了严格的检验。计算的目的是要足够精确，现在有必要包括虚光子的影响。该奖项反映了NSF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 funds the research activities of Professor Carleton DeTar at the University of Utah.Our current understanding of the most fundamental elementary particles and interactions in Nature is encapsulated in the "Standard Model". However, this theory is incomplete. For example, it cannot explain the dark matter that permeates the Universe. Thus physicists almost universally believe that still more fundamental particles and interactions are yet to be discovered. A large experimental search is underway at accelerators, such as the European Large Hadron Collider, to find new particles. Even if the accelerator energy is not high enough to find them, they will reveal their existence through discrepancies between careful measurements and precise theoretical predictions based on the Standard Model. Such comparisons are effective only if the residual uncertainties in the predicted quantities are reduced in tandem with improvements in the accuracy of experimental measurements. Professor DeTar and his collaborators are using the most powerful computers and codes to make precise predictions that can be compared with results of experimental measurements with particular attention to those cases in which some tantalizing discrepancies have already been found. This work is in the national interest in that it furthers our understanding of the most fundamental laws of Nature. The broader impacts of this work include training students and postdoctoral research associates in programming and utilizing the highest-performance computers, in the management of large data sets, and in the statistical analysis and extraction of physically important information. This experience should prepare students and postdoctoral research associates for jobs that utilize those skills, both in industrial as well as academic settings.More technically, this multiyear project will use methods of numerical lattice quantum chromodynamics in a precision study of the hadronic environment of heavy-quark decays --- particularly the bottom quark. The resulting hadronic decay constants and form factors are then combined with measurements of the decays of mesons containing those heavy quarks. The project will also calculate the strong-interaction contribution to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon. The resulting value for the hadronic vacuum polarization will be compared with results of ongoing high-precision experimental measurements of the magnetic moment. Both comparisons provide stringent tests of the consistency of the Standard Model and constraints on theoretical models of new physics. The calculations are intended to be sufficiently precise that it is now necessary to include the effects of virtual photons. This project will include them.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.