LEAPS-MPS: Searching for the Dark Side of the Universe with Gravitational Waves

Barry University, Miami FL

Investigators

Abstract

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). The Standard Model of elementary particles and cosmology describes remarkably well the evolution of the Universe starting from one-trillionth of a second after the Big Bang up to the present day. Despite this huge success, several fundamental questions remain unanswered: What is dark matter? Why is there more matter than antimatter in the Universe? Why are neutrinos massive? Solving these mysteries requires an understanding of what happened before one-trillionth of a second after the Big Bang. The tool enabling us to dive this far back into the Universe's history has only recently been provided by the first successful detection of gravitational waves. A primordial stochastic gravitational wave background, although not yet discovered, is expected to carry information precisely about the very early period of the Universe and is the subject of this proposal. This award supports Dr. Fornal at Barry University to construct and investigate well-motivated extensions of the Standard Model which solve the outstanding problems in particle physics (Dark matter, Matter-antimatter asymmetry, and Neutrino masses) which can be tested in present and future gravitational wave experiments. The project will provide substantial contributions to advancing knowledge, training future generations of scientists and highly specialized professionals acquainted with sophisticated mathematical methods and conveying physics ideas to nonscientists through the planned outreach activities. Given the gender and demographic diversity of Barry University, the project will significantly affect women and other groups underrepresented in the scientific community, who will receive training and acquire skills preparing them for advanced-degree programs in science, increasing their competitiveness on the academic and industrial job market, and improving their admission rate into doctoral programs. The goal of the project is to produce a mapping between the parameter space of the most attractive models of elementary particles accessible in gravitational wave detectors, and the parameter space which can be probed in other experiments. The new particle physics models considered are hypothetical, but their predictions will be verifiable in current and upcoming gravitational wave experiments. Combined with a positive signal from gravitational wave detectors, the results of this project would provide a breakthrough in understanding the structure of the Universe. The educational goal is to establish an energetic and creative group of young physics researchers among Barry University undergraduates. In addition, through presenting the results at international conferences and meetings of the American Physical Society, those students will be exposed to world-class scientists working in STEM fields, which will offer them various career networking opportunities. 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.