Cosmology and particle physics in the LHC era

由于大型强子对撞机等世界级实验的潜在发现，寻找新的光矢量玻色子（“重光子”），普朗克和费米卫星，以及直接探测暗物质的大量努力，未来五年我们对宇宙学和粒子物理界面的理解可能会有一个巨大的进步。我们的提议旨在通过解决粒子宇宙学的几个方面来利用一系列希望的可能性：在粒子物理学标准模型的扩展中产生宇宙的物质-反物质不对称性，来自“隐藏区域”的暗物质模型，衰变暗能量模型，以及作为宇宙常数问题的解决方案的自发破尺度不变性。具体来说，我们打算改进模型的预测，这些模型可以解释物质-反物质不对称的性质，这些性质可以在欧洲核子研究中心的大型强子对撞机上发现。我们还将在直接和间接的搜索中，改进几种暗物质成分的理论预测。此外，我们建议在粒子物理现象学方面进行研究，以研究最近关于在Tevatron对撞机上产生顶夸克的惊人实验结果的解释。我们将研究纯宇宙学中的主题，特别是通过适应天体物理环境（黑洞和中子星的合并）中为强引力开发的数值代码，以了解强引力对宇宙学中非均匀问题的影响，例如暴胀的初始条件。我们的项目探索了许多新的物理模型，这些模型将在不久的将来通过当前的对撞机和暗物质搜索实验进行测试。如果这些模型中的任何一个通过实验得到验证，它们将使我们深入了解超越当前标准模型的难以捉摸的物理知识。

The next five years are likely see a dramatic advance in our understanding of the cosmology/particle physics interface, thanks to the potential discoveries anticipated from world-class experiments like the Large Hadron Collider, searches for new light vector bosons ("heavy photons"), the Planck and Fermi satellites, and numerous efforts at direct detection of dark matter. Our proposal aims to take advantage of a range of the hoped-for possibilities by addressing several aspects of particle-cosmology: the generation of the matter-antimatter asymmetry of the universe in extensions of the standard model of particle physics, models of dark matter coming from a "hidden sector," models of decaying dark energy, and spontaneously broken scale invariance as a solution to the cosmological constant problem. Specifically, we intend to improve the predictions of models that can explain the matter-antimatter asymmetry relative to the properties of new particles that can be discovered at CERN's Large Hadron Collider. We will also refine the predictions of theories with several components of dark matter for discovery in direct and indirect searches. Moreover we propose to pursue topics in particle physics phenomenology, to study explanations for recent surprising experimental results concerning the production of top quarks at the Tevatron collider. We will examine topics in pure cosmology, particularly by adapting numerical codes developed for strong gravity in astrophysical settings (mergers of black holes and neutron stars) to understand the effects of strong gravity on inhomogeneous problems in cosmology, such as initial conditions for inflation. Our program explores a number of models of new physics that will be tested in the near future by current collider and dark matter search experiments. If any of these models are validated by experiment, they will give us insight into the elusive search for knowledge of physics beyond the current standard model.