This award funds the research activities of Professor Dejan Stojkovic at SUNY at Buffalo.
The goal of the research of Professor Stojkovic is to address open questions at the frontiers of particle physics, cosmology, and gravity. In particular, this research will be oriented toward understanding important aspects of the interplay between the properties of the recently-discovered Higgs particle and conditions in the early universe. Professor Stojkovic also aims to investigate the properties of certain rotating black holes which might have existed in the early universe, and thereby make important progress in our understanding of gravity at its most fundamental level. As such, this project advances the national interest by fostering the development of basic science within the United States. This project will also provide excellent training for the next generation of scientists and will further the development of innovative new ideas with manifold applications across many scientific disciplines.
More technically, this research will focus on the following topics. First, Professor Stojkovic will constrain the abundance of primordial black holes including the effects of rotation, which involves (i) calculating the emission spectra for primordial black holes of various masses and angular momenta, including hadronization of quarks and gluons and subsequent hadron decay into photons, (ii) contrasting the results with well-established astrophysical observations, and (iii) applying the newly established limits in order to improve the predictions for the production of gravitational waves through black-hole mergers or by direct Hawking radiation. Professor Stojkovic will also connect precision Higgs physics with gravity and cosmology by (i) refining and extending the original analysis of the false Higgs vacuum decay in the presence of gravity, (ii) relating the two-loop Higgs effective potential and primordial black-hole masses, and (iii) constraining physics beyond the Standard Model. Improved theoretical calculations and computational tools which are needed to perform this analysis will also be developed. In order to extract precise information, theoretical predictions for astrophysical observations and lab experiments will be made. This research will also be integrated with education and outreach. The tools developed will be made publicly available for the benefit of the larger research community. This project will also provide an excellent training ground for students at the high-school, undergraduate, and graduate levels, preparing them for possible future career in science.
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.
