NSF Award
1521097
from PI, not yet edited:<br/><br/>This award funds the research activities of Professors Matias Zaldarriaga at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. <br/><br/>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. <br/><br/>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.
