The Gravity of New Phenomena in Particle Physics

粒子物理学新现象的引力

• 批准号: SAPIN-2020-00045
• 负责人: Burgess, Clifford
• 金额: $ 6.56万
• 依托单位: McMaster University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Subatomic Physics Envelope - Individual
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2020-01-01 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=718327
• 关键词: Gravity; New; Phenomena; Particle; Physics

Like most subatomic theorists my objective is to understand the fundamental laws of nature. Our current most successful theory is the Standard Model (with General Relativity), which until recently accounted for all experiments. It now fails to describe a few observations: evidence for neutrino oscillations; for cosmological observations revealing the existence of primordial density fluctuations; and for the discovery in cosmology of two unknown sources of gravitation - the so-called dark matter and dark energy. Because these show that the Standard Model fails, we seek its replacement (whose discovery would revolutionize our understanding of nature). Much of the evidence against the Standard Model now comes from space, which is why cosmology and gravity have been my recent focus. In the past I proposed the simplest successful model for dark matter, and leading approaches to dark energy and for the origins of primordial fluctuations. These models were motivated both by simplicity and by the recognition that what we see is likely the low-energy limit of something more fundamental (which imposes 'naturalness' restrictions on candidate theories, particularly for dark energy). Besides continuing these directions I wish also to exploit the recent discovery of gravitational waves and high-resolution black-hole images to see whether they contain signs of the Standard Model's demise. This involves developing new theoretical tools, since the strong-gravity regime they probe does not easily lend itself to standard perturbative methods. These new tools involve exploring different aspects of gravitational fields with event horizons (surfaces through which objects can only travel in one direction if they at most move at the speed of light - as they must). One tool classifies new near-horizon phenomena by exploiting the simplicity that comes from proximity to the horizon (relative to a problem's other scales). A second tool - Open EFTs - explores late-time evolution, where interesting phenomena (like black-hole information loss) occur, but for which perturbative methods also generically fail. Open EFTs nonetheless make headway by adopting similar tools used elsewhere in physics (eg optics) to solve similar problems with late-time predictions. Some of these tools also are useful more widely: one class explores how very small objects (nuclei, for example) influence their much larger surroundings (atoms). This proposal tests the new tools by using them to simplify calculations of nuclear structure on atomic energy levels. A spinoff identifies observables that are independent of nuclear properties (and the large errors that come with them). Similar tools are also applied to simplify calculations of monopole catalysis of baryon-number violation. For Canada my product is people: The excitement of fundamental physics draws the finest young minds to learn mathematical problem-solving skills, which they then can (and do) bring to the rest of the economy.

像大多数亚原子理论家一样，我的目标是理解自然的基本规律。我们目前最成功的理论是标准模型（广义相对论），直到最近才解释了所有的实验。它现在无法描述一些观测：中微子振荡的证据;揭示原始密度波动存在的宇宙学观测;以及在宇宙学中发现两个未知的引力源--所谓的暗物质和暗能量。因为这些都表明标准模型失败了，我们寻求它的替代品（它的发现将彻底改变我们对自然的理解）。 现在，大部分反对标准模型的证据都来自太空，这就是为什么宇宙学和引力一直是我最近关注的焦点。在过去，我提出了最简单的成功的暗物质模型，并领导了暗能量和原始波动起源的方法。这些模型的动机是简单和认识到我们所看到的可能是更基本的东西的低能量极限（这对候选理论施加了“自然性”限制，特别是对于暗能量）。 除了继续这些方向，我还希望利用最近发现的引力波和高分辨率黑洞图像，看看它们是否包含标准模型消亡的迹象。这涉及到开发新的理论工具，因为他们探测的强引力区域不容易适用于标准微扰方法。这些新工具涉及探索具有事件视界的引力场的不同方面（如果物体最多以光速移动，则物体只能在一个方向上移动的表面-因为它们必须这样）。一种工具通过利用接近地平线（相对于问题的其他尺度）的简单性来对新的近地平线现象进行分类。第二个工具-开放EFTs -探索晚期演化，其中发生有趣的现象（如黑洞信息丢失），但微扰方法通常也失败。尽管如此，开放式EFT还是通过采用物理学（例如光学）中其他地方使用的类似工具来解决后期预测的类似问题而取得了进展。 其中一些工具也有更广泛的用途：一类是探索非常小的物体（例如原子核）如何影响其更大的环境（原子）。该提案通过使用新工具来简化原子能水平上的核结构计算来测试新工具。副产品识别与核特性无关的可观测量（以及随之而来的大误差）。类似的工具也被用来简化重子数破缺的量子催化的计算。 对加拿大来说，我的产品是人：基础物理学的兴奋吸引了最优秀的年轻人学习解决数学问题的技能，然后他们可以（也确实）把这些技能带到经济的其他领域。