Probing Fundamental Physics on Cosmological Scales

探索宇宙尺度的基础物理

• 批准号: 1521097
• 负责人: Matias Zaldarriaga
• 金额: $ 32.25万
• 依托单位: Institute For Advanced Study
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-09-01 至 2018-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1521097&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Probing; Fundamental; Physics; Cosmological; Scales

from PI, not yet edited:This award funds the research activities of Professors Matias Zaldarriaga at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. Observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background allow us to directly image regions of our Universe as they were only three hundred and eighty thousand years after the Big Bang. Recent observations have shown that the structures that we see at that time originated even before the hot big bang phase in the history of our Universe, a tiny fraction of a second after the Bang. These structures are the earliest fossils we have from our Universe's history. A wide array of new observations are underway to better characterize these structures to try to learn more about the earliest history of our Universe. This proposal will explore theoretical models for the period during which the structures originates as well as for the later history of our Universe. Both studies are needed to interpret these upcoming observations. This project is also envisioned to have significant broader impacts. Professor Zaldarriaga will involve postdoctoral students in this research which will contribute to their training at a critical stage in their career. Professor Zaldarriaga will continue to give public lectures and organize a course for senior citizens in the local senior community center. More technically, Professors Zaldarriaga will study new mechanisms for generating gravitational waves and non-Gaussianities in the scalar seeds during an inflationary period. He will work on the so-called consistency conditions applicable both during the early Universe and to the later development of structure. Professor Zaldarriaga will also study the theory behind additional probes of both the Early Universe, such as spectral distortions in the CMB and the properties of the dark matter, such as upcoming measurements of substructure as traced by gravitational lensing.

来自 PI，尚未编辑：该奖项资助新泽西州普林斯顿高等研究院 Matias Zaldarriaga 教授的研究活动。对宇宙微波背景的观测使我们能够直接对大爆炸后仅三十八万年的宇宙区域进行成像。最近的观察表明，我们当时看到的结构甚至起源于宇宙历史上的热大爆炸阶段之前，即爆炸后的一小部分时间。这些结构是我们宇宙历史上最早的化石。一系列新的观测正在进行中，以更好地表征这些结构，以尝试更多地了解我们宇宙的最早历史。该提案将探索结构起源时期以及宇宙后来历史的理论模型。 需要这两项研究来解释这些即将到来的观察结果。该项目预计还将产生更广泛的影响。 Zaldarriaga 教授将让博士后学生参与这项研究，这将有助于他们在职业生涯关键阶段的培训。扎尔达里亚加教授将继续在当地老年社区中心进行公开讲座并为老年人组织课程。 从技术上讲，扎尔达里亚加教授将研究在暴胀时期在标量种子中产生引力波和非高斯性的新机制。他将致力于研究适用于早期宇宙和后来结构发展的所谓一致性条件。扎尔达里亚加教授还将研究早期宇宙其他探测器背后的理论，例如宇宙微波背景中的光谱畸变和暗物质的特性，例如即将通过引力透镜追踪的子结构测量。