New Pathways Connecting Theory and Experiment

该奖项资助加州大学伯克利分校的Mary K. Gaillard、Lawrence J. Hall、Hitoshi Murayama和Surjeet Rajendran教授的研究活动。粒子物理学与宇宙学和天体物理学的相关领域相结合，提出了关于宇宙内部和外部运作的基本问题。宇宙是如何开始的？它是用什么做的？我们是如何存在的？我们要去哪里？是什么法则支配着这些问题的答案呢？这一领域的研究进展非常快，在粒子碰撞中冒险进入前所未有的能量，在观察罕见现象时达到前所未有的灵敏度，在精密测量中达到前所未有的精度。为了加速这一领域的进展，Gaillard、Hall、Murayama和Rajendran教授的目标是发展新颖的想法，将深刻的理论概念与实验可测量的过程联系起来。根据他们的记录，这些PI还建议发现和研究那些有助于设计该领域未来实验的特定联系。通过提高我们对这些基本问题的理解，这项研究与美国国家科学基金会促进美国基础科学进步的使命保持一致并提供了支持。此外，这些深刻的问题激发了公众和年轻人的思想，PI将继续致力于培养青年科学家，促进多样性，并通过讲座，学校，媒体和科普书籍参与公众宣传工作。从技术上讲，这些PI计划研究与暗物质、中微子、夸克味、超对称现象学和理论、观测宇宙学、场论、弦理论和多元宇宙直接相关的问题。村山教授将专注于利用所有这些领域的数据，以约束可能的相应理论框架，而霍尔教授将研究超越标准模型的物理学新景观。Gaillard教授将专注于弦理论和低能量可观测物理之间的联系，Rajendran教授将研究围绕所谓弛豫的层次问题的新解决方案。他还将研究新的轴子探测技术。这些教授还将继续开展影响更广泛的活动，包括为更大的物理社区提供服务，为促进多样性的明确目标提供指导，参与QuarkNet对高中教师和学生的外展活动，并提供在线公开讲座。

This award funds the research activities of Professors Mary K. Gaillard, Lawrence J. Hall, Hitoshi Murayama, and Surjeet Rajendran at the University of California, Berkeley. Particle physics --- in conjunction with related areas in cosmology and astrophysics --- asks fundamental questions about the inner and outer workings of our Universe. How did the Universe begin? What is it made of? How have we come to exist? Where we are going? What laws govern the answers to these questions? This area of research is moving very fast, venturing into unprecedented energies in particle collisions, unprecedented sensitivities in observing rare phenomena, and unprecedented accuracies in precision measurements. To accelerate progress in this area, Professors Gaillard, Hall, Murayama and Rajendran aim to develop novel ideas that will connect deep theoretical concepts to experimentally measurable processes. Building on their track records, these PI's also propose to discover and study those specific connections which aid in designing future experiments in this area. By advancing our understanding of these fundamental problems, this research aligns with and supports the mission of the National Science Foundation to promote the progress of basic science in the United States. Moreover, these kinds of profound questions excite the general public and young minds, and the PI's will continue to be engaged in training young scientists, promoting diversity, and participating in public outreach efforts through lectures, schools, media, and popular science books. More technically, these PI's plan to study questions of direct relevance to dark matter, neutrinos, quark flavor, the phenomenology and theory of supersymmetry, observational cosmology, field theory, string theory, and the multiverse. Professor Murayama will focus on exploiting data from all of these areas in order to constrain possible corresponding theoretical frameworks, while Professor Hall will study new landscapes for physics beyond the Standard Model. Professor Gaillard will focus on connections between string theory and low-energy observable physics, and Professor Rajendran will investigate new solutions to the hierarchy problem which revolve around the so-called relaxion. He will also study new axion detection techniques. These professors will also maintain their broader-impact activities which involve service to the larger physics community, mentoring with an explicit goal of promoting diversity, engaging in QuarkNet outreach activities to high-school teachers and students, and delivering public lectures which will be available online.