Probing Fundamental Physics on Cosmological Scales

该奖项资助新泽西州普林斯顿高等研究院的Matias Zaldriaga教授的研究活动。在过去的几十年里，由于地面和太空望远镜的一系列测量结果，我们对宇宙的了解大大增加了，这些测量绘制了我们可见宇宙中很大一部分物质的分布。我们有一个非常详细的宇宙学标准模型可以解释这些观测，但要做到这一点，需要在宇宙中填充额外的成分，如所谓的暗物质和暗能量，这些成分在实验室中还没有看到。为了试图理解这些发现，正在建造一套新的望远镜，并计划在接下来的十年里进行专门的观测计划。在他的研究中，Zaldriaga教授的目标是开发和扩展必要的工具，以提取即将到来的调查和实验中可用的所有信息。这项资助的研究还涉及一系列理论项目，以提高我们对非常早期的宇宙、暗物质和暗能量的性质，以及大质量中微子对我们宇宙结构演化的影响的理解。因此，通过促进美国基础科学的发展，这一项目符合国家利益。预计该项目还将产生更广泛的重大影响。Zaldriaga教授将让研究生和博士后参与这项研究，从而为开始这一领域研究的初级物理学家提供关键培训。扎尔达里亚加教授还打算继续就他的研究成果进行公开演讲，并在普林斯顿高级资源中心的常青树论坛上为老年人开设现代宇宙学讲座。更严格地说，扎尔达里亚加教授将使用所谓的大尺度结构有效理论来研究中微子在宇宙结构发展中的作用，并总体上试图了解两点关联函数和更高点统计的哪些性质对后期的非线性演化是稳健的。扎尔达里亚加教授将开发新的技术来寻找原始的非高斯主义，这是关于非常早期宇宙的重要信息来源之一，并将探索在早期宇宙中创造引力波的新机制和试图找到它们的新探测器。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award funds the research activities of Professor Matias Zaldarriaga at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ. In the last decades our understanding of the Universe has increased dramatically as a result of a series of measurements by telescopes on the ground and in space that have mapped the distribution of matter in a large fraction of our observable Universe. We have a very detailed standard model of Cosmology that can explain these observations, but to do so requires that the cosmos be filled with additional components, such as the so-called dark matter and dark energy, that have not been seen in the laboratory. To try to understand these findings, a new set of telescopes are being constructed and dedicated observational programs are being planned for the upcoming decade. In his research, Professor Zaldarriaga aims to develop and expand the necessary tools to extract all the information available in the upcoming surveys and experiments. The funded research also involves a series of theoretical projects to improve our understanding of the very early Universe, the properties of dark matter and dark energy, as well as the effects of massive neutrinos on the evolution of structure in our Universe. As such, this project is in the national interest by furthering the development of basic science in the United States. This project is also envisioned to have significant broader impacts. Professor Zaldarriaga will involve graduate students and postdocs in this research, and thereby provide critical training for junior physicists beginning research in this field. Professor Zaldarriaga also intends to continue to give public lectures on his research results and run his lecture course on modern Cosmology for seniors at the Evergreen Forum of the Princeton Senior Resource center.More technically, Professor Zaldarriaga will use the so-called Effective theory of Large-Scale Structure to study the effects of neutrinos in the development of structure in the Universe, and in general to try to understand what properties of the two-point correlation function and higher-point statistics are robust against the late-time non-linear evolution. Professor Zaldarriaga will develop new techniques to search for primordial non-Gaussianity, one of the important sources of information about the very early Universe, and will explore new mechanisms to create gravitational waves in the early Universe and new probes to try to find them.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.