CAREER: The Fundamental Physics of The Invisible and The Very Early Universe

这项职业基金支持宾夕法尼亚大学的Justin Khoury教授的研究。正如现在人们越来越了解的那样，宇宙的能量密度主要是由所谓的“暗区”所贡献的。作为他研究的一部分，Khoury教授将探索一个诱人的前景，即黑暗领域包括新的光自由度，在宇宙尺度上调节远程力，影响暗物质和重子物质。为了确保与实验室和太阳系重力测试的一致性，需要一些筛选机制来局部“隐藏”这些自由度。因此，Khoury教授旨在探索这一观点的理论基础，并充分发展现有筛选理论的观察意义。他还致力于在一致有效的场理论框架内设计新的筛选机制。Khoury教授还将研究他最近开发的一个新的宇宙学框架，该框架可能会消除宇宙演化早期暴胀期的必要性。这个框架，他称之为“伪共形宇宙”，为许多经典问题提供了替代的解决方案，这些问题也可以通过暴胀来解决。Khoury教授的活动也有望产生更广泛的重大影响。Khoury教授将为非科学专业的新生设计一个研讨会，并邀请来自粒子宇宙学中心、宾夕法尼亚大学妇女研究中心和宾夕法尼亚大学妇女中心联合举办的一个新的公共讲座系列的客座讲师。该系列讲座将以杰出的女性物理学家为主题，有助于扩大女性在科学界的代表性。Khoury教授还将在他与哥伦比亚大学、纽约大学和普林斯顿大学共同建立的一系列定期联合研讨会的基础上，进一步发展多机构合作。

This CAREER grant supports the research of Professor Justin Khoury at the University of Pennsylvania.As is now increasingly well understood, the energy density of the universe is dominated by contributions from a so-called "dark sector". As part of his research, Professor Khoury will explore the tantalizing prospect that the dark sector includes new light degrees of freedom that mediate long-range forces on cosmological scales, affecting both dark and baryonic matter. To ensure consistency with laboratory and solar system tests of gravity, some screening mechanism is necessary to "hide" these degrees of freedom locally. Professor Khoury therefore aims to probe the theoretical underpinnings of this idea, and fully develop the observational implications of existing screening theories. He also aims to devise novel screening mechanisms within the framework of consistent effective field theories. Professor Khoury will also study a new cosmological framework which he recently developed which might eliminate the need for an early inflationary period of cosmological evolution. This framework, which he calls the "pseudo-conformal universe", provides alternate solutions for many of the classic problems that are also solved by inflation.Professor Khoury's activities are also envisioned to have significant broader impacts. Professor Khoury will design a freshman seminar for non-science majors, with invited guest lecturers from a new public lecture series hosted jointly by the Center for Particle Cosmology, Penn's Women Studies, and Penn Women's Center. The lecture series will contribute to broader representation of women in science by featuring leading women physicists. Professor Khoury will also build on the series of regular joint workshops he has helped established with Columbia, NYU, and Princeton in order to develop multi-institutional collaborations.