Physics Beyond the Standard Model

该奖项资助加州大学圣迭戈分校的伊丽莎白·H·西蒙斯教授和R·塞哈尔·奇武库拉教授的研究活动。大型强子对撞机(LHC)是世界上能量最高的粒子对撞机。通过亚原子基本粒子在高能下相互碰撞，粒子物理学家希望了解宇宙中物质和能量的基本成分。在获奖期间，大型强子对撞机将开始一项新的实验运行，收集的数据将远远超过迄今可用的数据，大大扩展了我们发现新的物质成分和发现新的物理原理的范围。分析这些数据符合国家利益，因为它将通过在最短距离尺度上检查物质的性质并阐明物质和能量相互作用的规律来促进基础科学的进步。通过他们的研究，西蒙斯和奇武库拉教授的目标是构建和分析描述在大型强子对撞机上发现的所谓“希格斯玻色子”的性质和性质的新理论，并描绘出最好的实验分析，以便迅速和果断地理解在大型强子对撞机上发现的任何新动力学的本质。他们还将探索大型强子对撞机结果与其他新物理实验搜索收集的数据之间的互补性，包括那些旨在揭示构成我们银河系大部分质量的“暗物质”的本质的实验。这项研究还将产生更广泛的影响，包括在加州大学圣地亚哥分校开发新的和持续的科学课程，向所有年龄段的观众公开介绍科学，为所有参与者改善物理环境进行广泛的工作，并继续为国家和国际物理学界服务。这项研究项目还将涉及学生和博士后研究人员，从而为我国下一代科学家的培训和发展做出贡献。更严格地说，西蒙斯和奇武库拉教授将扩展他们的简化极限形式主义，以考虑如何最好地结合从各种衰变模式进行的LHC搜索，以发现潜在衰变到多个渠道的新共振。他们将应用他们在简化极限上的工作来分析星系晕中暗物质粒子的非共振湮灭，并研究这种方法如何约束(或发现)颗粒暗物质。他们将研究在众多复合希格斯模型中预测的顶级伙伴状态的理论和现象学，并研究在大型强子对撞机上发现这些状态的新策略。他们将扩展他们在喷气能量关联方面的工作，创造出灵敏的新探测器，用于发现大型强子对撞机上更多的有色态。此外，他们将检验和表征理论的性质，其中包括由紧凑引力理论产生的大量自旋二态，并将测试这种状态是否可以作为产生暗物质粒子的门户。这一奖项反映了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 Professors Elizabeth H. Simmons and R. Sekhar Chivukula at UC San Diego.The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the most energetic particle collider in the world. By colliding subatomic elementary particles against each other at high energies, particle physicists hope to learn about the fundamental constituents of matter and energy in the universe. During the award period, the LHC will commence a new experimental run which will collect substantially more data than has been available to date, significantly extending our reach for discovering new constituents of matter and uncovering new physical principles. Analyzing this data is in the national interest since it will promote the progress of fundamental science through the examination of the nature of matter at the shortest distance scales and elucidating the laws by which matter and energy interact. Through their research, Professors Simmons and Chivukula aim to construct and analyze new theories which describe the nature and properties of the so-called "Higgs Boson" discovered at the LHC and to delineate the best experimental analyses for swiftly and decisively understanding the nature of any new dynamics discovered at the LHC. They will also explore the complementarity between LHC results and the data gathered from other experimental searches for new physics, including those designed to uncover the nature of the "dark matter" which comprises the majority of mass in our galaxy. This research will also have substantial broader impacts, including the development of new and continuing science courses at UC San Diego, public presentations on science to audiences of all ages, extensive work to improve the environment in physics for all participants, and continued service to the national and international physics community. This research project will also involve students and postdoctoral researchers and thereby contribute to the training and development of the next generation of scientists in our nation.More technically, Professors Simmons and Chivukula will extend their simplified-limits formalism to consider how best to combine LHC searches from various decay modes to uncover new resonances potentially decaying into multiple channels. They will apply their work on simplified limits to analyze non-resonant annihilation of dark matter particles in galactic halos and investigate how such methods can constrain (or discover) particulate dark matter. They will study the theory and phenomenology of top-partner states which are predicted in numerous composite Higgs models and examine novel strategies for discovering these states at the LHC. They will extend their work on Jet Energy Correlations to create sensitive new probes for discovering additional colored states at the LHC. Furthermore, they will examine and characterize the properties of theories which include massive spin-two states arising from compactified theories of gravity and will test whether such states can serve as portals for the production of dark-matter particles.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.