Seeing in the Dark

该奖项资助了哈佛大学丽莎·兰德尔教授的研究活动。兰德尔教授的研究探索了迄今为止所探测到的最小尺度的基础物理学，以及迄今尚未确定的暗物质的性质。了解暗物质的本质及其在银河系中的分布对实验和观测探测器至关重要。兰德尔教授的研究将为这一努力做出重大贡献，为尚未探索的暗物质研究开辟了道路。这个研究项目也是高度跨学科的，从粒子物理学、宇宙学和天文学中汲取灵感，并与地质学、古生物学和化学有额外的潜在联系。因此，这项研究通过促进美国基础科学知识的发展，为国家利益做出了贡献。预计这项研究还将产生更广泛的重大影响。它不仅将让学生和博士后参与进来，从而帮助他们发展广泛的技能，而且还将为向公众介绍科学思想——特别是粒子物理学方面的思想——提供丰富的背景。PI在公共领域的存在也鼓励了女性和其他代表性不足的群体追求科学，而PI最近出版的《暗物质和恐龙：宇宙惊人的相互联系》为将科学带给公众提供了一个理想的平台，并导致了许多媒体的出现。这些活动预计将在目前的合同下继续进行。从技术上讲，尽管粒子物理学在过去十年中取得了巨大进步，但许多重要问题仍未得到解答，包括电弱尺度的起源和暗物质的性质。例如，我们仍然不知道暗物质是什么，也不知道如何理解它在宇宙能量密度中所占的份额。PI将在“部分相互作用暗物质”的框架内调查这些问题，并在一个被称为“双盘暗物质”的特定实现中，其中一小部分暗物质粒子在引力之外有有趣的相互作用。该特性可以产生新的可测试签名，这些签名可能会影响结构的形成。另一种普遍的可能性是“淹没暗物质”，它提供了一种自然的方式来稀释黑暗区域的熵。这一机制扩大了暗物质物理模型构建的可能性。最后，兰德尔教授计划研究理解弱尺度起源的新机制，并将研究它们的实验意义。

This award funds the research activities of Professor Lisa Randall at Harvard University. Professor Randall's research explores fundamental physics at the smallest scales probed thus far as well as the nature of the as-yet unidentified dark matter. Understanding the nature of dark matter and its distribution in the Milky Way is essential for experimental and observational probes. Professor Randall's research will contribute significantly to this effort, opening up avenues for dark-matter research that have not yet been explored. This research program is also highly interdisciplinary, drawing from particle physics, cosmology, and astronomy, with additional potential connections to geology, paleontology, and chemistry. As such, this research contributes to the national interest by furthering the development of fundamental scientific knowledge within the United States. This research is also envisioned to have significant broader impacts. It will not only involve students and postdocs, thereby helping them develop a broad skill set, but also serves as a rich backdrop for introducing scientific ideas --- particularly those in particle physics --- to the general public. The PI's presence in the public sphere also encourages women and other under-represented groups to pursue science, while the PI's recent book "Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs: The Astounding Interconnectedness of the Universe" has provided an ideal platform for bringing science to the general public and has led to numerous media appearances. These activities are expected to continue under the current award.More technically, in spite of tremendous progress in particle physics over the last decade, many important questions remain unanswered, including the origin of the electroweak scale and the nature of dark matter. For example, we still do not know what dark matter is, or how its share of the cosmic energy density can be understood. The PI will investigate these questions within the framework of "Partially Interacting Dark Matter", and within one particular realization known as "Double Disk Dark Matter", where a small fraction of dark matter particles have interesting interactions beyond the gravitational. This feature can give rise to new testable signatures that can potentially affect structure formation. Another generic possibility is "Flooded Dark Matter", which provides a natural way to dilute the entropy in the dark sectors. This mechanism expands the model-building possibilities for dark-matter physics. Finally, Professor Randall plans to investigate new mechanisms for understanding the origin of the weak scale and will study their experimental implications.