RUI: Beyond Leading Order: Using Computation to Constrain Fundamental Physics

该奖项资助了副教授小约翰·T·吉卜林的研究。在凯尼恩学院。最近的观测和实验结果为高能粒子物理的性质和早期宇宙的模型提供了新的线索。现在比以往任何时候都更加清楚的是，宇宙是我们能够以高于加速器所能达到的能量来研究基础物理的唯一实验室。在这些能量下描述物理的理论是高度非线性的、复杂的动力系统。吉布林教授的研究将使用尖端数值技术和分析方法来预测许多高能物理模型的观测结果。这些结果将有助于理解当前和未来的观测如何限制超标准模型物理的模型。这项研究还解决了培养青年学生和大学生对科学的兴趣的迫切需要。大约250名中学生将被带到凯尼恩学院参加一个名为“科学星期六”的项目，该项目将让他们亲身参与科学活动。学生们还将全天与科学家一起工作，为他们提供一个积极、互动的科学探究模式。这笔资金还将支持本科生的研究和合作。有意义的本科生研究是支持和培养下一代年轻科学家的关键组成部分。在这个奖项下研究的数值方法将允许研究非线性和导数耦合的场论，因为它们与膨胀、规范理论和引力有关。这里开发的软件，网格和气泡演化(GABE)，将发现阿贝尔和非阿贝尔规范场如何修改膨胀和后膨胀过程，并探索场理论的非最小动力学项的影响。此外，它还将被用来预测这些模型的可观测特征、原始功率谱和引力辐射。这些研究将有助于理解现实的膨胀模型是否可行并与观测结果一致，并探索粒子的非最小性质作为对暗能量本质的可能解释。此外，该奖项将支持对后通货膨胀时期相变期间的非线性引力相互作用的研究和相关的数值计算。随着我们为下一代引力波观测站做准备，对引力波频谱的精确预测可能会对这些实验的设计和成本产生重大影响。

This award funds the research of Associate Professor John T. Giblin, Jr. at Kenyon College. Recent observational and experimental results have shed new light on the nature of high-energy particle physics and models of the early Universe. It is clearer now than ever that the Universe is the only laboratory in which we can study fundamental physics at energies above those achievable in accelerators. The theories that describe physics at these energies are highly non-linear, complex dynamical systems. Professor Giblin's research will use employ cutting-edge numerical techniques as well as analytic methods to predict the observational consequences of many models of high-energy physics. These results will help understand how current and future observations can constrain models of beyond-the-standard model physics. This research also addresses the pressing need to cultivate interest in science among young students and college undergraduates. Approximately two hundred fifty middle school students will be brought to Kenyon College for a "Science Saturday" program that will engage them with hands on science activities. Students will also get to work with scientists throughout the day offering them a positive, interactive model of scientific inquiry. This funding will also support undergraduate research and collaboration. Meaningful undergraduate research is a critical component of supporting and cultivating the next generation of young scientists. The numerical methods studied under this award will allow for the study of non-linear and derivatively coupled field theories as they relate to Inflation, Gauge theories and Gravitation. The software developed here, Grid and Bubble Evolver (GABE), will discover how abelian and non-abelian gauge fields modify inflation and post-inflationary process and probe the effects of field theories with non-minimal kinetic terms. Further, it will be used to predict observable signatures, primordial power spectra and gravitational radiation, of these models. These studies will help to understand whether or not realistic models of inflation are viable and consistent with observations, and explore the non-minimal nature of particles as a possible explanation of the nature of Dark Energy. In addition, this award will support investigations of nonlinear gravitational interactions during phase transitions in the post-inflationary epoch and relevant numerical. As we prepare for the next generation of gravitational wave observatories, precise predictions of gravitational wave spectra could have drastic consequences on the design and cost of these experiments.