Frontier Challenges in Neutrino Cosmology, Dark Energy and Dark Matter

该计划的目标是通过对包含大尺度和小尺度宇宙结构形成的宇宙演化进行N体数值模拟来研究暗能量、暗物质和中微子质量。 模拟将纳入将来的调查结果，因为它们是可用的。这项工作详细说明了驱动星系晕内星系分布的物理过程，晕和亚晕质量函数，晕相对于暗物质的偏差，以及纯暗物质统计，如非线性功率谱和高阶统计。为了确定暗能量和中微子质量的状态方程，必须以高精度确定这些量。 产生中微子质量的新物理学的存在突出了中微子领域可能存在极其重要的东西的机会？也就是说，它是暗物质的有力竞争者。在粒子物理学标准模型的大多数扩展中预测的不育中微子可以在早期宇宙中产生，并成为暗物质的一部分。PI建议改进对无菌中微子产生及其聚集和生长的分析，以了解这些粒子是否是宇宙中大部分暗物质的原因。本研究提案中提出的项目将通过对这些项目的监督研究来培训和培养研究生，从而将研究和教育结合起来。这项研究的结果将通过网络和PI提供的各种讲座向社区传播。参与该项目的研究生将培养在理论天体物理学前沿工作所需的技能，包括复杂的计算技能。

The objective of this proposal is to study dark energy, dark matter, and the neutrino mass by doing N-body numerical simulations of the evolution of the universe incorporating large and small scale cosmological structure formation. The simulations will incorporate future survey results as they become available. This work specifies the physical processes driving the distribution of galaxies within their halos, the halo and sub-halo mass function, the bias of halos relative to the dark matter, as well as pure dark matter statistics such as the nonlinear power spectrum and higher order statistics. Determining these quantities robustly and at high precision is necessary in order to determine the equation of state of the dark energy and neutrino mass. The presence of new physics which generates neutrino mass highlights the chance that something extremely significant may be present in the neutrino sector ? namely,it is a strong contender to be dark matter. Sterile neutrinos, predicted in most extensions to the standard model of particle physics, can be produced in the early universe and be part of dark matter. The PI proposes to improve the analysis of sterile neutrino production and their clustering and growth in order to see whether these particles are responsible for a large fraction of the dark matter in the universe. The projects presented in this research proposal will integrate research and education by training and developing graduate students through supervised research on these projects. The results of this research will be disseminated to the community on the web and in various talks given by the PI. The graduate students involved on this project would develop the skills needed to work at the forefront of theoretical astrophysics, including sophisticated computational skills.