BIG BANG NUCLEOSYNTHESIS (BBN) WAS AN EARLY SUCCESS OF THE BIG BANG MODEL OF COSMOLOGY. COSMIC INFLATION PROVIDES AN ORIGIN FOR THE INITIAL CONDITIONS NECESSARY FOR THE GROWTH OF STRUCTURE IN THE UNIVERSE. HOWEVER LITTLE IS KNOWN OBSERVATIONALLY ABOUT THE COSMIC EPOCH IN BETWEEN DESPITE EXPECTATIONS FROM FUNDAMENTAL THEORY FOR A RICH AMOUNT OF PHENOMENOLOGY. THE OBJECTIVE OF THE PROPOSEDRESEARCH IS TO ESTABLISH THE HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSE DURING THIS COSMIC EPOCH BY EXPLORING THE CONNECTION BETWEEN PARTICLE THEORY AND OBSERVATIONS TODAY. A STRICTLY THERMAL HISTORY IS A WELL-MOTIVATED POSSIBILITY FOR THE EVOLUTION DURING THIS EPOCH. HOWEVER OTHER ALTERNATIVES ARE POSSIBLE. ONE EXAMPLE IS IF DARK MATTER WERE PRODUCED NOT ONLY IN THERMAL EQUILIBRIUM BUT ALSO FROM THE DECAYOF HEAVIER MATTER FOLLOWING THERMAL FREEZE-OUT. THIS NON-THERMAL HISTORY OFTEN ARISES FROM FUNDAMENTAL THEORIES THAT INVOKE SUPERSYMMETRY TO ADDRESS THE HIERARCHY BETWEEN THE STRENGTH OF GRAVITY AND THE ELECTROWEAK SCALE. IN SUCH A HISTORY A SECONDARY SOURCE FOR THE ORIGIN OF DARK MATTER LEADS TO DIFFERENT PREDICTIONS FOR BOTH ITS COMPOSITION AND INTERACTION STRENGTH. IN SOME CASES DARK MATTER CAN INTERACT AS MUCH AS 1000 TIMES MORE STRONGLY THAN ANTICIPATED FROM A STRICTLY THERMAL HISTORY. THESE ENHANCED INTERACTIONS LEAD TO A PLETHORA OF NEW PREDICTIONS FOR THE PHYSICS OF THE COSMIC MICROWAVE BACKGROUND (CMB) THE GROWTH OF COSMIC STRUCTURE ON ALL SCALES AND THE FLUX OF PARTICLES COMING FROM DARK MATTER ANNIHILATIONS WITHIN GALAXIES FOR A NON-THERMAL HISTORY IT HAS ALREADYBEEN DEMONSTRATED THAT STRINGENT CONSTRAINTS CAN BE PLACED ON MODEL BUILDING BY COMBINING DATA FROM OBSERVATIONS ON VARIOUS SCALES. AS AN EXAMPLE A NON-THERMAL HISTORY RESULTING FROM HEAVY PARTICLE DECAY IS FOUND TO LEAD TO A FASTER RATE FOR DARK MATTER ANNIHILATIONS WHICH RESULTS IN AN EXTENDED PERIOD OF REIONIZATION COMPARED TO THAT PREDICTED BY A THERMAL HISTORY. OBSERVATIONS FROM THE NASAWILKINSON MICROWAVE ANISOTROPY PROBE (WMAP) CAN THEN BE USED TO PLACE CONSTRAINTS ON THE PROPERTIES OF THE DECAYING PARTICLES AND THE EXPANSION HISTORY AT THE TIME OF DECAY. THE LARGER INTERACTION RATE OF THE DARK MATTER ALSO LEADS TO LARGER FLUXES OF GAMMA RAYS FROM DARK MATTER ANNIHILATIONS WITHIN OUR OWN GALAXY TODAY. DATA FROM THE NASA FERMI SATELLITE THEN LEADS TO ADDITIONALCONSTRAINTS AT THE TIME OF DECAY. ANOTHER WAY IN WHICH TO CONSTRAIN THE COSMIC HISTORY IS THROUGH THE EVOLUTION OF DENSITY PERTURBATIONS. MODIFICATIONS TO THE EXPANSION RATE DURING THIS TIME WILL LEAD TO ALTERED PREDICTIONS FOR THE GROWTH OF STRUCTURE RELATIVE TO THE CASE OF A STRICTLY THERMAL HISTORY. BUILDING ON EARLIER STUDIES OF A NON-THERMAL HISTORY THIS PROJECT WILL FOCUS ON DEVELOPING A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF THE PRE-BBN UNIVERSE BY WORKING CLOSELY WITH FUNDAMENTAL THEORIES AND THE CORRESPONDING PREDICTIONS FOR DARK MATTER AND MODIFICATIONS TO THE GROWTH OF THE LARGE-SCALE STRUCTURE OF THE UNIVERSE. THIS PROJECT IS REPRESENTATIVE OF NASA'S GOALS AND STRATEGIC PLAN SPECIFICALLY IN RELATION TO STRATEGIC GOAL 2: EXPAND SCIENTIFIC UNDERSTANDING OF THE EARTH AND THE UNIVERSE IN WHICH WE LIVE AND MORE PRECISELY OBJECTIVE 2.4.1: IMPROVE UNDERSTANDING OF THE ORIGIN AND DESTINY OF THE UNIVERSE AND THE NATURE OF BLACK HOLES DARK ENERGY DARK MATTER AND GRAVITY . THE PROPOSED RESEARCH IS RELEVANT TO TWO CATEGORIES SET FORTH IN THE ASTROPHYSICS THEORY PROGRAM: (8) LARGE SCALE COSMIC STRUCTURES AND DARK MATTER (E.G. CLUSTERS OF GALAXIES GALAXY ENVIRONMENT AND EVOLUTION INTRACLUSTER MEDIUM DIFFUSE PHOTON BACKGROUNDS) AND (9) DARK ENERGY AND THE COSMIC MICROWAVE BACKGROUND (E.G. THEORETICAL STUDIES OF COSMOLOGICAL OBSERVATION TECHNIQUES THEORETICAL COSMOLOGY DARK ENERGY MODELS). THIS PROJECT IS TIMELY IN THAT IT WILL UTILIZERAPIDLY IMPROVING DATA FROM EXISTING NASA EXPERIMENTS SUCH AS FERMI AND WMAP AS WELL AS DATA TO APPEAR SOON FROM EXPERIMENTS SUCH AS PLANCK.