Fundamental physics seeks to reveal the forces and particles that constitute the physical universe. Human imagination applied to these matters through theoretical physics is wonderful, but without evidence from experiment, can go astray and often fails to match the ingenuity of nature. It is important to find new sources of experimental guidance.
One promising approach is applying emerging technologies to advance fundamental physics through small-scale experiments.
To stimulate new ideas and create innovative technologies to explore problems in fundamental physics, we partnered with the American Physical Society to establish the Fundamental Physics Innovation Awards. The program runs for three years, through 2021, and is administered by the American Physical Society.
“These awards are about bringing people together to think creatively about how we can take the next steps in fundamental physics beyond the Standard Model,” says Theodore Hodapp, Director of Project Development at American Physical Society. “Large mega-projects offer one direction, but table-top physics may offer a window into the underlying physics in completely unexpected ways.”
Awards are open to both theorists and experimentalists with novel ideas for detecting dark matter, unlocking secrets of dark energy, exploring physics beyond the standard model, or addressing other problems in fundamental physics. Ideas for experiments should focus on platforms well suited to a single investigator or small teams.
Researchers who want to improve their baseline understanding or advance the frontiers of either novel precision technologies or issues in fundamental physics may also apply.
The Fundamental Physics Innovation Awards fall into three categories:
- Lectureship Awards – to broaden awareness of existing or proposed searches for new physics using novel cost-effective probes, and of new theoretical ideas that could impact where and how such probes search for new physics.
- Visitor Awards – to promote collaboration and the exchange of ideas by supporting one to six weeks between researchers.
- Convening Awards – to promote collaboration and enable individuals to gather and have focused discussions and presentations at small scientific meetings.
These specific approaches to promoting information exchange were chosen based on discussions with researchers in the field, including a workshop we organized to explore options for advancing fundamental physics via cost-effective, precision experiments.
The inaugural recipients of the Fundamental Physics Innovation Awards include:
Lectureship Awards
- Edmund Myers, Research Professor of Physics at Florida State University, will travel to the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg, Germany. He will give a seminar on using the spectroscopy of diatomic antihydrogen molecular ions to test CPT symmetry breaking.
Visitor Awards
- Derek Jackson Kimball, Professor of Physics at California State University East Bay, will go to Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel, to work with researchers on table-top experimental investigations of exotic spin-dependent interactions related to dark matter.
- Kim Siang Khaw, Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Washington, travels to the University of Liverpool, UK, to organize a workshop on experimental methods for measuring a permanent electric dipole moment in muons.
- W. Michael Snow, Professor of Physics at Indiana University, will host Valery Nesvizhevsky (European Center for Neutron Research, Grenoble, France) to give presentations at several institutions on experimental searches for neutron-antineutron oscillations, which can provide insight into the baryon asymmetry of the universe.
Convening Awards
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