Gravitational Waves and the Early Universe

引力波和早期宇宙

• 批准号: 386364-2012
• 负责人: Boyle, Latham
• 金额: $ 2.19万
• 依托单位: University of Waterloo
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2015-01-01 至 2016-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=572945
• 关键词: Gravitational; Waves; Early; Universe

The astonishing progress in cosmology over the past century was driven by two engines: on the one hand, the effort to understand the relationship between the fundamental laws of physics and the large-scale properties of the cosmos; and, on the other hand, the effort to look out at the Universe through as many different observational windows as possible. Correspondingly, the research program that I propose has two branches that have grown out of my previous work. The first branch aims to account for some features of the early universe, in a manner that is woven as tightly as possible into the fabric of known physical laws. For example, I will analyze certain minimal extensions of the standard model of particle physics that link to the early universe in a particularly economical way. I will show how these models connect to an elegant idea due to Chamseddine and Connes, which reinterprets the standard model of particle physics in terms of a certain type of "non-commutativity" in the underlying spacetime itself. I will use this as a framework to understand and explore beyond-the-standard-model physics and early universe cosmology. To understand cosmological initial conditions, I will develop a new proposal for defining and calculating the quantum mechanical "wave function of the universe," using mathematical techniques recently introduced by Witten. The second branch aims to extend the scope of gravitational wave astronomy into as many frequency bands as possible. In this direction I propose to: (i) develop and apply a general theory of gravitational wave detector networks, starting from the "porcupine" limit in which the gravitational wavelength is long relative to the individual detectors in the network, as well as the distances between the detectors; and (ii) analyze the possibility of removing (to some extent) one of the fundamental noise sources that afflicts ground-based gravitational wave detectors at low frequencies. The goal of both branches is a deeper understanding of the Universe, but history shows that such research also inevitably impacts and improves society in dramatic and unpredictable ways.

在过去的世纪里，宇宙学取得了惊人的进步，这是由两个引擎推动的：一方面，努力理解基本物理定律与宇宙大尺度性质之间的关系;另一方面，努力通过尽可能多的不同观测窗口来观察宇宙。 相应地，我提出的研究计划有两个分支，它们是从我以前的工作中发展出来的。 第一个分支旨在解释早期宇宙的一些特征，其方式是尽可能紧密地编织到已知物理定律的结构中。 例如，我将分析粒子物理学标准模型的某些最小扩展，它们以一种特别经济的方式与早期宇宙联系起来。 我将展示这些模型如何与Chamseddine和Connes的一个优雅的想法联系起来，这个想法重新解释了粒子物理学的标准模型，即在底层时空本身中的某种类型的“非对易性”。 我将以此为框架来理解和探索超越标准模型的物理学和早期宇宙学。 为了理解宇宙学的初始条件，我将使用维滕最近引入的数学技术，提出一个定义和计算量子力学“宇宙波函数”的新建议。 第二个分支旨在将引力波天文学的范围扩展到尽可能多的频段。 在这个方向上，我建议：（i）发展和应用引力波探测器网络的一般理论，从“豪猪”极限开始，其中引力波长相对于网络中的单个探测器以及探测器之间的距离较长;（二）分析消除（在某种程度上）是影响地基引力波探测器低频的基本噪声源之一。这两个分支的目标都是更深入地了解宇宙，但历史表明，这样的研究也不可避免地以戏剧性和不可预测的方式影响和改善社会。