RUI: Quantum Kinetics of Neutrinos: Studying the Universe at the Interface of Neutrino and Nuclear Astrophysics

RUI：中微子的量子动力学：在中微子和核天体物理学的界面研究宇宙

• 批准号: 2111591
• 负责人: Chad Kishimoto
• 金额: $ 18.15万
• 依托单位: University of San Diego
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-08-01 至 2024-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2111591&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RUI; Quantum; Kinetics; Neutrinos; Studying

Every second, trillions of neutrinos pass through our bodies, leaving nary a trace. On the other hand, in the first few minutes of the lifetime of the universe — a mere blink of the eye in the 13.8 billion year history of the universe from the Big Bang to the present day — the universe is so hot and so dense that neutrinos, in spite of the weakness of their interactions with matter, play an important role in the dynamics of this early epoch in the history of the universe. As a result, the early universe provides an interesting environment to study fundamental physics that may be either difficult or impossible to probe in the terrestrial laboratory. This project looks to leverage upcoming advances in upcoming high-precision cosmological observations to use the dynamics of the early universe to explore fundamental physics. The PI will train undergraduate student researchers, and as they engage in this intriguing field of study, they will build various skills that are valuable across a range of 21st century careers. In performing this work, they will numerically simulate neutrino evolution in astrophysical environments along with the concomitant effect on their environment. These simulations will explore the complex evolution of neutrinos that are influenced by their quantum mechanical nature and by many interactions with other neutrinos and their environment. This project will explore the quantum kinetic evolution of neutrinos in the early universe where this evolution is driven by the hot and dense environment as well as large fluxes of neutrinos. The quantum kinetic neutrino evolution is affected by their coherent, unitary quantum mechanical behavior, their high scattering rates, and nonlinearity introduced by neutrino-neutrino interactions. In the early universe — the first few minutes after the Big Bang — this nonlinear quantum kinetic behavior plays an important role in the dynamics of the universe as well as the interconversion between protons and neutrons. A self-consistent exploration of this behavior is needed too understand its effects on cosmological observables as well as the synthesis of elements in Big Bang Nucleosynthesis. The goal of this project is to solve the quantum kinetic equations in the early universe to build a broader understanding of the nonlinear quantum kinetic evolution of neutrino states in this environment, to elucidate the feedback of this evolution, and toward the goal of leveraging upcoming anticipated high-precision cosmological observations complemented by high-fidelity theoretical calculations to treat the universe as a laboratory to study fundamental physics.This project advances the objectives of "Windows on the Universe: the Era of Multi-Messenger Astrophysics", one of the 10 Big Ideas for Future NSF Investments.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.

每秒钟，几万亿个神经元穿过我们的身体，留下痕迹。另一方面，在宇宙一生的前几分钟中，从大爆炸到今天的宇宙历史上仅眨眼到了眼睛 - 宇宙是如此炎热，如此密集，以至于神经元在与物质互动的脆弱性中，在这种早期的竞争中发挥了重要作用，在这一历史上的早期遍历中发挥了重要作用。结果，早期的宇宙为研究基本物理学提供了一个有趣的环境，这些物理学可能很难或不可能在陆地实验室进行探测。该项目旨在利用即将到来的高精度宇宙学观察来利用早期宇宙的动态来探索基本物理学的进步。 PI将培训本科生的研究人员，并且在参与这个有趣的研究领域时，他们将建立各种在21世纪的职业中有价值的技能。在执行这项工作时，他们将亲自模拟天体物理环境中的神经元演化，并对其环境产生伴随的影响。这些模拟将探讨受其量子机械性质影响以及与其他神经元及其环境的许多相互作用的神经元的复杂演变。该项目将探索在早期宇宙中神经元的量子动力学演变，在这种宇宙中，这种演变是由炎热而密集的环境以及大量神经元驱动的。量子动力学神经元的进化受其连贯，统一的量子机械行为，高散射率和神经元中性相互作用引入的非线性的影响。在早期的宇宙（大爆炸之后的前几分钟），这种非线性量子动力学行为在宇宙的动力学以及质子和中子之间的互换中起着重要作用。需要对这种行为进行自一致的探索，也可以理解其对宇宙学观察的影响以及大爆炸核合成中元素的综合。该项目的目的是解决早期宇宙中的量子动力学方程式，以建立对神经元状态的非线性量子动力学进化的更广泛的理解，以阐明这种演变的反馈，并朝着利用即将到来的预期的高度精确综合观察的实践来构成供应的实力，以便将高级供应供应供应，以便将高度的供应供应供应，以便将高度的供应供应供应。提出了“宇宙中的窗口：多理智的天体物理学时代”的目标，这是未来NSF投资的10个重要想法之一。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响审查标准通过评估来获得的支持。