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Consolidated Grant 2015

2015年综合赠款

基本信息

批准号：
ST/N000331/1
负责人：
Themistocles Bowcock
金额：
$ 869.59万
依托单位：
University of Liverpool
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Research Grant
财政年份：
2015
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2015 至无数据
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ST%2FN000331%2F1
关键词：
Consolidated Grant 2015

项目摘要

The research of the experimental particle physics group addresses some of the main questions in fundamental physics. One of the most pressing is what is the mechanism that is behind the overwhelming dominance of matter over anti-matter in the Universe? Matter and anti-matter should have been created in equal quantities in the early Universe, yet the gross difference in their natural occurrence is a defining feature of what we observe. Without this asymmetry life could not exist. We believe that neutrinos may hold the key to understanding the matter-antimatter asymmetry. Neutrinos, discovered almost a century ago, are the most evanescent of particles. They have no charge, barely interact with matter and were long thought to be completely massless (like a photon). They can travel through the earth with only the tiniest probability of leaving a trace. To detect neutrinos we have had to build enormous but very sensitive detectors. Our experiments show that neutrinos actually have a very small but significantly non-zero mass. This small non-zero mass allows them to drive the matter-antimatter asymmetry in the early Universe. An important part of our research is to make detailed measurements of the neutrinos, to understand their masses and to calculate if their properties are indeed those required to explain the matter-antimatter dominance.The discovery of the Higgs particle was one of the most important in the last decade. It confirmed the existence of a fundamentally new type of "force" that pervades all of nature and gives mass to elementary particles. Without the Higgs, particles such as electrons could not bind to protons to make hydrogen atoms. Thus normal atomic matter, even stars, could not be formed. We continue to study the Higgs to measure and understand its properties. We are especially interested to see if the Higgs particles provides a window to what we call the "dark universe". It has long been known that there is not enough visible matter in the Universe to explain the speed at which galaxies rotate. There are simply not enough stars. The only explanation appears to be that surrounding us, and in all galaxies, there is a halo of invisible matter which exerts a gravitational influence (hence why the galaxies spin as fast as they do) but which does not interact with light. Calculations suggest there is 5 times more of this dark matter than visible matter in the Universe. The Higgs could interact with dark matter, thus we can use the Higgs to "illuminate" the dark sector for the first time. This is an important part of our research. Observations also suggest that the Universe is inflating, as if there is pressure created by space itself. This process is observed but non-understood. It strongly suggests there is another form of dark energy at work. Altogether the dark universe accounts for 95% of the matter/energy in the Universe with only 5% (that we can observe) being luminous. This makes the study of the dark matter and energy absolutely central to our understanding of the fundamental nature of our world. Thus we have joined experiments whose aim is to try and study and uncover the true nature of dark energy.Our theory of how all particles interact is embodied in what is called the Standard Model. With the exception of neutrinos and their masses it has enormous predictive power and provides a simple framework for elucidating the nature of the universe. Following the scientific method we continue to refine and test the SM at the energy frontier and with dedicated precision experiments. This provides another, and well tested route, to the discovery of new physics.

实验粒子物理组的研究解决了基础物理学中的一些主要问题。最紧迫的问题之一是，宇宙中物质对反物质的压倒性优势背后的机制是什么？在早期宇宙中，物质和反物质应该以相等的数量被创造出来，然而它们在自然发生中的巨大差异是我们所观察到的一个定义性特征。没有这种不对称性，生命就不可能存在。我们相信中微子可能是理解物质-反物质不对称性的关键。中微子发现于近世纪前，是最易逝的粒子。它们不带电荷，几乎不与物质相互作用，并且长期以来被认为完全没有质量（就像光子一样）。它们可以在地球上旅行，留下痕迹的可能性极小。为了探测中微子，我们不得不建造巨大但非常灵敏的探测器。我们的实验表明，中微子实际上有一个非常小的，但显着非零质量。这种小的非零质量使它们能够驱动早期宇宙中的物质-反物质不对称性。我们研究的一个重要部分是对中微子进行详细测量，了解它们的质量，并计算它们的性质是否确实是解释物质-反物质主导地位所需的性质。希格斯粒子的发现是最重要的发现之一过去十年。它证实了一种全新类型的“力”的存在，这种力渗透到自然界的所有地方，并赋予基本粒子质量。没有希格斯玻色子，像电子这样的粒子就不能与质子结合形成氢原子。因此，正常的原子物质，甚至恒星，都无法形成。我们继续研究希格斯粒子，以测量和理解它的性质。我们特别感兴趣的是，希格斯粒子是否为我们所谓的“暗宇宙”提供了一个窗口。人们早就知道，宇宙中没有足够的可见物质来解释星系旋转的速度。没有足够的星星。唯一的解释似乎是，在我们周围，在所有的星系中，有一个不可见物质的光环，它施加引力影响（因此为什么星系旋转得那么快），但不与光相互作用。计算表明，宇宙中的暗物质比可见物质多5倍。希格斯玻色子可以与暗物质相互作用，因此我们可以第一次用希格斯玻色子“照亮”暗区。这是我们研究的一个重要部分。观测还表明，宇宙正在膨胀，就好像空间本身产生了压力。这个过程被观察到，但不被理解。它强烈地表明，还有另一种形式的暗能量在起作用。总而言之，暗宇宙占宇宙中物质/能量的95%，只有5%（我们可以观察到）是发光的。这使得对暗物质和能量的研究对于我们理解世界的基本性质至关重要。因此，我们加入了旨在尝试、研究和揭示暗能量真正本质的实验，我们关于所有粒子如何相互作用的理论体现在所谓的标准模型中。除了中微子和它们的质量之外，它具有巨大的预测能力，并为阐明宇宙的性质提供了一个简单的框架。遵循科学方法，我们继续在能源前沿和专门的精密实验中完善和测试SM。这为发现新物理学提供了另一条久经考验的途径。