CAREER: Towards realistic halo-scale constraints on the nature of dark matter and gravity

职业：对暗物质和引力的性质进行现实的晕尺度限制

• 批准号: 2338388
• 负责人: Benedikt Diemer
• 金额: $ 101.96万
• 依托单位: University of Maryland, College Park
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-09-01 至 2029-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2338388&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Towards; realistic; halo; scale

The nature of dark matter (DM) and gravity are among the foremost unsolved problems in astrophysics. To distinguish between the possible solutions, astrophysicists compare the observed distribution of galaxies to supercomputer simulations, which follow the formation and evolution of galaxies in “fake” Universes with different DM and gravity models. This team of investigators will create an ambitious simulation suite that uniformly covers an unprecedented range of DM and gravity models. The simulations will be publicly available and will enable detailed comparisons to observational surveys that are expected to release data during the 5-year lifetime of this award, potentially ruling out certain models of DM and gravity. This project will also support the mentoring of a postdoctoral researcher and a graduate student, as well as an exploration of novel tools such as 3D printing to teach cosmology to a wide range of learners. Enormous effort has been devoted to finding observable imprints of different DM and gravity models, but the work of different groups is most often impossible to inter-compare because they rely on different cosmological parameters, galaxy formation physics, simulation codes, and analysis tools. As a result, it is still unclear which model signatures are robust and which are degenerate with those of other models, cosmology, or poorly understood feedback processes. This project represents a systematic approach to searching for unique observable signatures on small scales, focusing on the density structure of (sub-)halos, the outskirts of galaxy clusters, and the distribution of satellite galaxies. The resulting simulation suite will be unique in its uniformity, its breadth of models, and its mass range from dwarf galaxies to clusters. The publicly available simulations will enable countless community projects.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.

暗物质的性质和引力是天体物理学中最重要的未解决的问题之一。为了区分可能的解决方案，天体物理学家将观测到的星系分布与超级计算机模拟进行比较，超级计算机模拟遵循具有不同DM和重力模型的“假”宇宙中星系的形成和演化。这个研究团队将创建一个雄心勃勃的模拟套件，统一涵盖前所未有的DM和重力模型。 这些模拟将公开提供，并将与预计在该奖项的5年生命周期内发布数据的观测调查进行详细比较，可能会排除某些DM和重力模型。该项目还将支持博士后研究人员和研究生的指导，以及探索新的工具，如3D打印，以向广泛的学习者教授宇宙学。人们已经投入了巨大的努力来寻找不同DM和引力模型的可观测印记，但不同小组的工作通常不可能相互比较，因为它们依赖于不同的宇宙学参数，星系形成物理学，模拟代码和分析工具。因此，目前还不清楚哪些模型特征是稳健的，哪些模型特征与其他模型、宇宙学或知之甚少的反馈过程的特征退化。该项目代表了一种系统的方法来寻找小尺度上独特的可观测特征，重点是（子）晕的密度结构，星系团的外围和卫星星系的分布。由此产生的模拟套件将是独一无二的，其统一性，其模型的广度，其质量范围从矮星系到星系团。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为是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的支持。