Probing Fundamental Physics on Cosmological Scales

该奖项资助了马蒂亚斯·扎尔达里加教授在新泽西州普林斯顿高等研究院的研究活动。宇宙学是一门致力于理解我们宇宙的历史以及支配其演化的物理规律的科学，由于基础物理学和天体物理学的进步以及大量新数据的可用，宇宙学正在经历一场革命。在接下来的几十年里，对星系位置的大规模调查将作为新信息的来源发挥核心作用。Zaldriaga教授的工作旨在提高我们对物理过程的理论理解，这些物理过程负责这些调查所描绘的结构的发展。这些调查还将有助于为这些调查开发新的建模和分析工具，并改善这些观测研究产生的宇宙学制约因素。因此，这一领域的研究通过促进最基本的科学领域之一的进步而促进了国家利益：发现和表征描述我们宇宙历史的物理定律。预计资助的工作也将产生重大的更广泛的影响。天文学和宇宙学是广受公众欢迎的学科。国际和平研究所以前以非科学家可获得的形式传播这项研究的努力将继续并扩大。这些措施包括定期为成人和中小学举办公开讲座，接受媒体采访，包括针对拉美裔观众的采访，以及在老年人中心举行的系列讲座。资助的研究还将有助于学生和博士后研究员的教育。从技术上讲，扎尔达里亚加教授的工作将结合两种最先进的技术：提供理论控制和计算的分析有效场论思想，以及以高效和符合统计学原则的方式将理论与观测对峙的统计技术。其目的是利用这些新技术来利用以前无法获取的关于宇宙学初始条件和将它们与观测相联系的非线性物理的信息，从而为该领域提供独特的、潜在的变革性贡献。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, New Jersey. Cosmology, the science devoted to understanding the history of our Universe as well as the physical laws that govern its evolution, is experiencing a revolution thanks to the healthy interplay between advances in fundamental physics and astrophysics and the availability of a vast amount of new data. In the next decades large surveys of the location of galaxies will play a central role as sources of new information. The work of Professor Zaldarriaga aims to improve our theoretical understanding of the physical processes responsible for the development of the structure that these surveys map. These surveys will also help to develop new modeling and analysis tools for such surveys and improve cosmological constraints derived from these observational studies. Research in this area thus advances the national interest by promoting the progress of one of the most fundamental areas of science: the discovery and characterization of the physical laws that describe the history of our Universe. The funded work is also expected to have significant broader impacts. Astronomy and cosmology are subjects of broad appeal to the public. Previous efforts by the PI to disseminate the research in a form accessible to non-scientists will be continued and expanded. These include periodic public lectures both for adults and in primary and middle schools, interviews in the media, including those targeted to Hispanic audiences, and a lecture series at a senior citizens center. The funded research will also contribute to the education of students and postdoctoral fellows. More technically, the work of Professor Zaldarriaga will combine two state-of-the-art techniques: analytical effective field theory ideas that provide theoretical control with computational, and statistical techniques that confront theory with observations in an efficient and statistically principled way. The aim is to use these new techniques to harness previously inaccessible information about cosmological initial conditions and the non-linear physics that relates them to the observations, and thereby provide a unique and potentially transformative contribution to the field.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.