New Directions in Physics Beyond the Standard Model

该奖项资助纽约大学的Neal Weiner教授和Joshua Ruderman教授的研究活动。粒子物理的标准模型(SM)在描述观察到的现象方面非常成功。然而，除了SM之外，物理学还有许多动机。这包括暗物质，它支配着宇宙中的星系。同样，对新现象的研究现在也提供了丰富的实验数据。大型强子对撞机从地面对撞机中能量最高的基本粒子的碰撞中收集了相当大的数据集，对暗物质的新搜索对一些最流行的暗物质理论施加了重大限制。到目前为止，这些结果似乎与SM一致，还没有出现关于暗物质的决定性的非引力证据。但更多的数据即将到来：大型强子对撞机正在升级，以更高的能量和更高的碰撞率运行，最终将把当前数据集的大小扩大约20倍。未来的暗物质直接探测实验，如LZ和XENONnT，将探测与弱相互作用相关的特定质量范围内的暗物质，各种实验正在涌现，以探测更轻质量的暗物质。此外，理论研究现在正指向下一代任务和实验应该是什么样子。了解正在进行的实验的影响和不足之处，将有助于将美国置于发现新的物理定律或发现新的基本粒子的中心位置。因此，资助有助于利用我们在实验物理方面已经相当大的投资的理论研究符合国家利益。在这种情况下，重要的数据已经到来，但更多的数据还没有到来，韦纳教授和鲁德曼教授提议在理论粒子物理方面开展一个多样化的研究计划，跨越多个长度尺度，并预计将有多个来自实验的新兴数据集。该项目还将产生重大的更广泛的影响。PIS将进行公开演讲，包括在高级中心，并将赞助媒体物理学奖学金比赛，以支持新闻和电影学生参观物理实验，这些实验将成为他们故事和电影的主题。更严格地说，PIS提议开发一系列新的暗物质和粒子物理模型，旨在了解现有和计划中的实验的搜索能力，并激励新的实验。特别是，PI将研究暗物质的热和非热产生机制，以及这些机制如何影响实验中预期的信号大小。PI还将研究中微子物理模型，其中包括中微子的新相互作用以及如何测试它们。此外，PI将研究可以针对高亮度大型强子对撞机的物理，包括非标准希格斯扇区和标准模型过程的精密测量的发展，以测试标准模型以外的新物理的微妙影响。最后，PI将在新数据出现时做出反应，以确定相应的理论含义。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 Professors Neal Weiner and Joshua Ruderman at New York University.The Standard Model (SM) of Particle Physics has been exceptionally successful in describing observed phenomena. However, a number of motivations exist for physics beyond the SM. This includes dark matter, which dominates the galaxies of the universe. Likewise, searches for new phenomena are now providing copious experimental data. The Large Hadron Collider has collected a sizable dataset from collisions of elementary particles at the highest energy ever in a terrestrial collider, and new searches for dark matter have placed significant constraints on some of the most popular dark-matter theories. So far these results seem consistent with the SM, and decisive non-gravitational evidence for dark matter has not emerged. But much more data is coming: the LHC is being upgraded to operate at higher energies and higher collision rates, and will eventually multiply the size of the current dataset by about a factor of 20. Future dark-matter direct-detection experiments such as LZ and XENONnT will probe dark matter within certain mass ranges associated with the weak interaction, and diverse experiments are emerging to probe dark matter at even lighter masses. Moreover, theoretical studies are now pointing to what the next generation of missions and experiments should look like. Understanding the implications of ongoing experiments and where they are lacking will help place the United States in a central position to uncover new physical laws or discover new elementary particles. As a consequence, funding theoretical research that helps leverage our already sizable investments in experimental physics is in the national interest. In this context, where significant data has arrived but much more is yet to come, Professors Weiner and Ruderman propose to carry out a diverse research program in theoretical particle physics, stretching across multiple length scales and in anticipation of multiple emerging datasets from experiments. This project will also have significant broader impacts. The PIs will give public lectures, including at senior centers, and will sponsor competitions for Physics in Media Fellowships to support the travel of journalism and film students to visit physics experiments that will become the subjects of their stories and movies.More technically, the PIs propose to develop a range of new models of dark matter and particle physics, aimed at understanding what the search capacity for existing and planned experiments will be, and to motivate new experiments. In particular, the PIs will study both thermal and non-thermal production mechanisms for dark matter, and how these mechanisms impact the signal sizes that can be expected in experiment. The PIs will also study models of neutrino physics that include new interactions for neutrinos and how they may be tested. Furthermore, the PIs will study physics that can be targeted at the high-luminosity LHC, including non-standard Higgs sectors and the development of precision measurements of Standard-Model processes as tests for subtle effects of new physics beyond the Standard Model. Finally, the PIs will respond to new data as it emerges to determine the corresponding theoretical implications.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.