The Planck satellite has mapped the faint afterglow of the Big Bang in exquisite detail, and this programme will mine that data for the fingerprints of how the Universe inflated in its first trillionth of a second. This work addresses a fundamental gap in knowledge: we do not know what powered the explosive expansion of the early Universe, or what happened in the moments before atoms formed. By comparing specific statistical patterns in the cosmic microwave background—three- and four-point correlations—with predictions from competing inflation models, the researchers can rule out entire classes of theories. They will also search for gravitational waves from violent early-universe events, such as phase transitions and cosmic strings, using data from LIGO and the future LISA mission. This is primarily curiosity-driven fundamental science. It will not produce a new battery or improve a smartphone. But understanding inflation and the nature of dark energy reshapes our picture of reality itself. Past fundamental research into the cosmic microwave background, for example, led directly to the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe—a finding that now drives entire fields of physics. A clearer picture of the early Universe could, in time, reveal new physics beyond the Standard Model, with consequences we cannot yet foresee.
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This programme will develop deeper connections between fundamental cosmological scenarios and new observational data about our Universe, especially STFC-supported missions such as the Planck satellite, the Advanced LIGO interferometer and the LISA mission. We will make detailed predictions about the statistical properties of inflationary fluctuations; for competing inflation scenarios we will calculate their bispectrum and trispectrum (three- and four-point correlators). We will search for these characteristic signatures in the cosmic microwave background (CMB), notably in Planck data, using new modal estimation techniques we have developed. We will also seek out the distinct non-Gaussian signatures of cosmic (super-)strings. We will investigate the gravitational waves that can be generated by violent processes in the early universe, such as at the end of inflation, from phase transitions and from cosmic strings. We will forecast the characteristic amplitude and spectrum of these signals for LIGO and LISA. We will use data from the late universe to develop probes of the cosmological constant/dark energy and the variation of the fundamental constants of nature. We will use astronomical and laboratory data to test for the existence of chameleonic scalar fields and we will constrain models for dark energy and modified gravity using N-body simulations and exact analysis. In addition, we will initiate a new project in gravitational theory, studying the existence, formation and consequences of black holes. We investigate the properties of rotating black holes and the effect of magnetic fields. We will study primordial black-hole formation and its accompanying observational signatures.
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