Public Abstract

DE-SC0011637: Theory of Cosmology, Fields, Particles, and Strings

Award Status: Active

Institution: University of Washington, Seattle, WA
UEI: HD1WMN6945W6
DUNS: 605799469

Most Recent Award Date: 04/08/2025
Number of Support Periods: 11
PM: Kilgore, William

Current Budget Period: 05/01/2025 - 04/30/2026
Current Project Period: 07/01/2024 - 04/30/2027
PI: Sharpe, Stephen

Supplement Budget Period: N/A

Public Abstract

Title: Theory of Cosmology, Fields, Particles, and Strings PI: Stephen Sharpe University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195 This is a proposal to fund the research of five faculty members in the Particles, Fields, Strings and Cosmology theory group in the Physics department at the University of Washington. The proposed research spans a broad range of areas, including physics beyond the standard model, astrophysical and cosmological implications of new physics, applications of gauge/string duality to QCD-related phenomena and other strongly correlated systems, quantum aspects of black holes and its implications for a theory of quantum gravity, and lattice gauge theory. This research will facilitate the extraction of signatures of new physics from experiments and observations, as well as the prediction of new phenomena within established quantum field theories. Students, both graduate and undergraduate, and postdocs will participate in the research and receive training and mentoring. Prof. Isabel Garcia Garcia’s research will focus on three key objectives. First, deepening our insight into symmetry-breaking in field theory and gravity. Second, improving our understanding of how field-theoretic defects interact with perturbative degrees of freedom, with a special focus on implications for the early universe phenomenology of domain and bubble walls. Third, developing innovative approaches to explain the CP and flavor structure of the Standard Model. This will include investigating the potential relevance of generalized symmetries to address these outstanding puzzles. Prof. Marilena Loverde’s research targets the unknown physics of dark energy, dark matter, and neutrinos through studies of maps of the cosmic microwave background and the distribution of large-scale structures in the Universe today. The proposed research has two thrusts: First, to develop techniques to isolate novel signatures of massive neutrinos, and other sources of non-cold dark matter, in large scale-structure via analytic methods and cosmological simulations. Second, to generalize searches for new particles and interactions with the cosmic datasets. Prof. Stephen Sharpe’s research will extend the reach of lattice QCD calculations to allow study multihadron states, ultimately motived by the aim of searching for new physics at the intensity frontier, for example in the decays D → ππ and D → KK-bar. This work involves using quantum field theoretic methods to extend the formalism necessary to extract infinite-volume quantities from finite-volume results obtained using lattice QCD simulations, as well as applying the resulting formalism to numerical results, and solving the related integral equations to obtain the three-particle scattering amplitudes. Prof. Gustavo Joaquin Turiaci’s proposed research concerns quantum aspects of black holes, and developing both a conceptual and mathematical framework applicable to theories of quantum gravity. One of the general lessons from string theory has been that black holes behave as unitary quantum systems as seen from the outside. A first goal is to further develop the gravitational path integral, which so far has been the most successful tool generating answers consistent with a holographic description of black holes. The second goal is to characterize as precisely as possible the properties a quantum system needs in order to be dual to black holes. Prof. Laurence Yaffe’s proposed research concerns non-perturbative dynamics in non-Abelian gauge theories. One thrust focuses on holographic modeling of early stages of heavy-ion collisions, aiming to perform holographic calculations with realistic initial conditions for a variety of impact parameters, study the early-time development of flow, vorticity and entropy production, and explore the differences in subsequent hydrodynamic evolution when holographic modeling is used to provide hydro initial data. A second thrust involves a new attempt to solve large-N Yang-Mills and QCD (lattice regularized) by solutions of suitably truncated sets of large-N loop equations or minimization of truncated descriptions of the coherent state Hamiltonian which characterizes large-N classical dynamics.

Title: Theory of Cosmology, Fields, Particles, and Strings

PI: Stephen Sharpe

University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195

This is a proposal to fund the research of five faculty members in the Particles, Fields, Strings and Cosmology theory group in the Physics department at the University of Washington. The proposed research spans a broad range of areas, including physics beyond the standard model, astrophysical and cosmological implications of new physics, applications of gauge/string duality to QCD-related phenomena and other strongly correlated systems, quantum aspects of black holes and its implications for a theory of quantum gravity, and lattice gauge theory. This research will facilitate the extraction of signatures of new physics from experiments and observations, as well as the prediction of new phenomena within established quantum field theories. Students, both graduate and undergraduate, and postdocs will participate in the research and receive training and mentoring.

Prof. Isabel Garcia Garcia’s research will focus on three key objectives. First, deepening our insight into symmetry-breaking in field theory and gravity. Second, improving our understanding of how field-theoretic defects interact with perturbative degrees of freedom, with a special focus on implications for the early universe phenomenology of domain and bubble walls. Third, developing innovative approaches to explain the CP and flavor structure of the Standard Model. This will include investigating the potential relevance of generalized symmetries to address these outstanding puzzles.

Prof. Marilena Loverde’s research targets the unknown physics of dark energy, dark matter, and neutrinos through studies of maps of the cosmic microwave background and the distribution of large-scale structures in the Universe today. The proposed research has two thrusts: First, to develop techniques to isolate novel signatures of massive neutrinos, and other sources of non-cold dark matter, in large scale-structure via analytic methods and cosmological simulations. Second, to generalize searches for new particles and interactions with the cosmic datasets.

Prof. Stephen Sharpe’s research will extend the reach of lattice QCD calculations to allow study multihadron states, ultimately motived by the aim of searching for new physics at the intensity frontier, for example in the decays D → ππ and D → KK-bar. This work involves using quantum field theoretic methods to extend the formalism necessary to extract infinite-volume quantities from finite-volume results obtained using lattice QCD simulations, as well as applying the resulting formalism to numerical results, and solving the related integral equations to obtain the three-particle scattering amplitudes.

Prof. Gustavo Joaquin Turiaci’s proposed research concerns quantum aspects of black holes, and developing both a conceptual and mathematical framework applicable to theories of quantum gravity. One of the general lessons from string theory has been that black holes behave as unitary quantum systems as seen from the outside. A first goal is to further develop the gravitational path integral, which so far has been the most successful tool generating answers consistent with a holographic description of black holes. The second goal is to characterize as precisely as possible the properties a quantum system needs in order to be dual to black holes.

Prof. Laurence Yaffe’s proposed research concerns non-perturbative dynamics in non-Abelian gauge theories. One thrust focuses on holographic modeling of early stages of heavy-ion collisions, aiming to perform holographic calculations with realistic initial conditions for a variety of impact parameters, study the early-time development of flow, vorticity and entropy production, and explore the differences in subsequent hydrodynamic evolution when holographic modeling is used to provide hydro initial data. A second thrust involves a new attempt to solve large-N Yang-Mills and QCD (lattice regularized) by solutions of suitably truncated sets of large-N loop equations or minimization of truncated descriptions of the coherent state Hamiltonian which characterizes large-N classical dynamics.