The important thing is not to stop questioning.
– Albert Einstein
The Buchalter Cosmology Prize is an annual prize that seeks to stimulate ground-breaking theoretical, observational, or experimental work in cosmology that has the potential to produce a breakthrough advance in our understanding. It was created to support the development of new theories, observations, or methods, that can help illuminate the puzzle of cosmic expansion from first principles.
The winners of the 2020 Buchalter Cosmology Prize have been announced!
Submissions for the 2021 Buchalter Cosmology Prize will be accepted from October 1st, 2020 through September 30th, 2021. The prize amounts will be as follows:
Winners of the 2021 Buchalter Cosmology Prize will be announced in January 2022 and posted on the Announcements page. Additional prize details are available here.
Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.
– Albert Einstein
Cosmology seeks to answer perhaps the most fundamental questions science can ask, such as:
As such, the study of cosmology not only reveals basic truths that further our understanding of physics, but occupies a unique and singular status in the quest for human knowledge in general. In recent decades, cosmology has undergone something of a scientific renaissance, as technological advances have generated unprecedented quantity and quality of observational data, in turn attracting a wave of new minds to interpret and explain it.
The Standard Big Bang model has done a remarkable job in explaining many fundamental observations, such as the microwave background (CMB) radiation, the Hubble expansion, primordial element abundances, and more. However many other, seemingly fundamental, observations are not immediately explained by the model. A few examples include dark matter (introduced to explain large-scale dynamics), inflation (introduced to explain the so-called Horizon Problem), and dark energy (re-introduced to explain the apparent cosmic acceleration).
These examples share a common issue: they explain a phenomenon that is not understood in the context of an existing theory, by introducing a new idea or mechanism which itself is not understood and which has no physical motivation to exist, other than to explain the original phenomenon. In effect, there is a one-to-one trading of ignorance, so to speak. If the aim of science is to reduce the number of unknowns, to explain a multitude of phenomena from a parsimony of ideas, to create understanding from first principles, then these ideas would seem to fall short on those measures. If we expect the progress of science to follow Occam’s Razor, then we should be skeptical of any theory engineered to explain an unknown by introducing an effectively equal number of new unknowns, and we should continue to drive towards a true understanding from first principles.
The Buchalter Cosmology Prize was conceived on the premise that there are still fundamental gaps in our understanding of cosmology and that currently-accepted paradigms such as inflation and dark energy are incomplete, and possibly even incorrect descriptions of our Universe. It was therefore created to support the development of new ideas or discoveries that have the potential to produce a breakthrough advance beyond our present understanding of the standard cosmological model and currently-accepted paradigms such as inflation and dark energy. The mission of the prize is to stimulate ground-breaking theoretical, observational, or experimental work, specifically around theories, observations, or methods, that challenge, extend, or illuminate current cosmological models and/or help explain the cosmic expansion from first principles. The ultimate goal is to help spur the formulation of a broader cosmological theory that explains current observations, puts forth testable new predictions, and fundamentally advances our understanding of physics.
The Buchalter Cosmology Prize was instituted by Dr. Ari Buchalter. From a young age, Dr. Buchalter was drawn to science. Though not scientists themselves, his working-class grandparents and parents instilled in him a deep awe and admiration for science as the noblest of human pursuits, and in particular for astronomy & astrophysics, which seemed to explore the biggest mysteries of all. This influence, coupled with exposure to the inspiring popular works of Carl Sagan, Isaac Asimov, and other ambassadors of science from the 1970s and 1980s, set him on the path to pursue astrophysics in his education and his early career.
Dr. Buchalter received a BS in Physics from Stanford University in 1993, a PhD in Astronomy from Columbia University in 1999 for work in theoretical astrophysics, and pursued postdoctoral research at Caltech from 1999 to 2001, where he held the Lee A. DuBridge Prize Postdoctoral Fellowship in Astrophysics. As a graduate student and postdoc, he published over a dozen papers on theoretical astrophysics in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings, on topics including large-scale structure formation, galaxy formation and evolution, gravitational lensing, tests of the cosmic expansion, and the cosmic microwave background radiation. In a 2004 in a paper entitled “On the time variation of c, G, and h and the dynamics of the cosmic expansion” Dr. Buchalter put forth a theory which appears to explain a broad range of cosmological observations without the need for either inflation or dark energy, and which became the inspiration for encouraging others to pursue innovative and paradigm-challenging ideas through the creation of The Buchalter Cosmology Prize.
While at Caltech, Dr. Buchalter was intrigued by the application of mathematical methods to the pricing of financial securities and founded and managed a small hedge fund focused on quantitative trading of equity & index derivatives. With a growing interest in the business world, Dr. Buchalter decided to leave academia in 2001 and joined the management consulting firm McKinsey & Company, where he became an Associate Principal in the Media Practice. During his time at McKinsey, he found that quantitative methodologies from science could be applied in unique and powerful ways in the business world. This was particularly true in the data-intensive area of marketing, where an explosion of “big data” combined with techniques such as predictive modeling, cluster analysis, and optimization was having a transformative effect, especially in the then-emerging realm of digital media. In 2005, Dr. Buchalter joined Rosetta Marketing, a marketing consulting & services company focused on using advanced analytics and data-driven insights to inform business strategy, improve product development, and optimize marketing programs. As a Senior Partner, he led Rosetta’s Digital Media & Technology practice, working with leading companies in the Telecom, Media, and Technology sectors. From 2008 to 2017, Dr. Buchalter served as Chief Operating Officer and President of MediaMath, a leading global advertising technology company, where he led the development of MediaMath’s media trading and data management platform, proprietary machine-learning algorithms, and core business processes. He currently serves as CEO of Intersection, a leading smart cities technology and media company, focused on transforming the urban experience by connecting the digital and physical worlds.
Dr. Buchalter serves on the boards of several technology companies, and is a frequent speaker and author on the topics of digital media, marketing strategy, and the application of quantitative techniques to solve business challenges. Seeing the power of innovative thinking and unconventional solutions in the business world, Dr. Buchalter created The Buchalter Cosmology Prize to encourage and recognize ideas in cosmology that have the potential to fundamentally advance our thinking.
We are to admit no more causes of natural things than such as are both true and sufficient to explain their appearances.
– Isaac Newton
During his days as a graduate student and postdoc in astrophysics, Dr. Buchalter often struggled with commonly-accepted paradigms in cosmology, such as inflation and dark energy, which seemed to explain a phenomenon that was not understood by introducing a new idea or mechanism which itself was not understood – and which had no physical motivation to exist, other than to explain the original phenomenon. Dr. Buchalter believed that “new theories should not merely replace one ignorance with another.” However, as a young scientist planning to build a career in astrophysics research, he was reluctant to challenge these canonical concepts in his research.
In 2004, three years after leaving science as a profession, Dr. Buchalter decided to revisit this line of thought. He noted another area where there appeared to be “placeholders for ignorance” in physics – namely, in the so-called physical constants. While some constants, such as the Rydberg, have historically been revealed to be comprised of other more fundamental quantities, other constants such as the speed of light (c), the gravitational constant (G), and Planck's constant (h), are of seemingly primary significance. Though ubiquitous throughout physics over decades or centuries, the underlying meaning and significance of these dimensional constants remains unclear: why are they present in the equations of physics, and why do they take on the values they do? If precedent suggests that constants might be viewed as placeholders for as yet undiscovered physics in our theories, then one of the challenges of physics is surely to reveal the physical meaning of these parameters. Indeed, it might be generally supposed that as physics progresses, fewer constants will be required as more fundamental theories are put forth, and that a true "theory of everything" might contain no such quantities, explaining nature from first principles alone.
Following a Machian line of reasoning, Dr. Buchalter conjectured that these “placeholder” constants were not in fact constant, but somehow fundamentally related to the global dynamics of the cosmic expansion. Many others had previously explored the notion that physical constants might vary over time, and moreover had formulated theories describing this variation that can address a range of cosmological problems. But these theories lacked a fundamental explanation of what the constants actually were and why they varied (typically only exploring some ad hoc or heuristic assumption for the variation), and failed to address some observations such as apparent cosmic acceleration from Type Ia supernova light curves.
In a 2004 paper entitled “On the time variation of c, G, and h and the dynamics of the cosmic expansion,” Dr. Buchalter examined the dimensional properties of the constants, and postulated physically-motivated definitions for the so-called constants, relating c, G, and h respectively to the time variation of the linear scale factor, volume, and surface area of the Universe. In this theory, variation in the “constants” is not due to an assumed parameterization, but rather arises naturally from their physical definitions – and means that massless particle propagation, gravity, and quantization all arise as natural consequences of the cosmic expansion.
Together with a postulated conservation law and equations of motion, Dr. Buchalter put forth the Varying Physical Parameter theory, and explored the implications of this theory in a Friedmann model arriving at several extremely interesting conclusions including:
Some of the other intriguing features of the Varying Physical Parameter theory include:
Excited by the findings and implications of this theory, Dr. Buchalter created the Buchalter Foundation with the dual purpose of:
The Buchalter Cosmology Prize was conceived on the premise that there are still fundamental gaps in our understanding of cosmology and that currently-accepted paradigms such as inflation and dark energy are incomplete, and possibly even incorrect descriptions of our Universe. It was created to stimulate ground-breaking theoretical, observational, or experimental work in cosmology that challenges, extends, or illuminates current models and/or helps explain the cosmic expansion from first principles. The ultimate goal is to help spur the formulation of a broader cosmological theory that explains current observations, puts forth testable new predictions, and fundamentally advances our understanding of physics.
Three prizes will be awarded for the 2021 Buchalter Cosmology Prize. The prize amounts will be as follows:
If a winning paper has multiple authors, the prize will be split equally among the authors.
All decisions of the judging panel, including eligibility of submissions in meeting qualification criteria and the determination of winners, will be final. No comments, reviews, or feedback will be provided.
Winners of the 2021 Buchalter Cosmology Prize will be announced in January 2022 and posted on the Announcements page.
Submission instructions and qualifications for the Buchalter Cosmology Prize are as follows:
(please fill out submitter’s information, as well as the arXiv reference number of the paper being submitted)
Submitters will receive an email confirmation within 24 hours of their submission.
The Buchalter Cosmology Prize is pleased to announce the 2020 winners. The full press release can be found below.
Prize | Authors | Paper Title | arXiv Reference Number |
---|---|---|---|
First Prize | Dr. Daniel Green, Dr. Rafael A. Porto | Signals of a Quantum Universe | arXiv:2001.09149 |
Second Prize | Dr. Mikhail M. Ivanov, Dr. Marko Simonović, Dr. Matias Zaldarriaga | Cosmological Parameters from the BOSS Galaxy Power Spectrum | arXiv:1909.05277 |
Third Prize | Dr. Philip Mocz, Dr. Anastasia Fialkov, Dr. Mark Vogelsberger, Dr. Fernando Becerra, Dr. Mustafa A. Amin, Dr. Sownak Bose, Dr. Michael Boylan-Kolchin, Dr. Pierre-Henri Chavanis, Dr. Lars Hernquist, Dr. Lachlan Lancaster, Dr. Federico Marinacci, Dr. Victor Robles, Dr. Jesús Zavala | First star-forming structures in fuzzy cosmic filaments | arxiv:1910.01653 |
Submissions for the 2021 Buchalter Cosmology Prize are currently being accepted. Winner announcements for the 2021 prize will be made in January 2022 and posted on this page.
PRESS RELEASES
Annual Buchalter Cosmology Prize Announces 2020 Winners
January 12, 2020 (10:50 AM EST) – The winners of the 2020 Buchalter Cosmology Prize were announced today at the 237th meeting of the American Astronomical Society. The annual prize, created by Dr. Ari Buchalter in 2014, seeks to reward new ideas or discoveries that have the potential to produce a breakthrough advance in our understanding of the origin, structure, and evolution of the universe.
The $10,000 First Prize was awarded to Dr. Daniel Green of The University of California, San Diego and Dr. Rafael A. Porto of Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, for their work entitled “Signals of a Quantum Universe” published in Physical Review Letters and recognized by the judging panel as “a novel and remarkable way to unambiguously prove the quantum origin of large-scale cosmological structure, which could in turn lead to proving the quantum nature of gravity.”
The $5,000 Second Prize was awarded to Dr. Mikhail M. Ivanov of New York University and the Russian Academy of Sciences, Dr. Marko Simonović of CERN, and Dr. Matias Zaldarriaga of the Institute for Advanced Study, for their work entitled “Cosmological Parameters from the BOSS Galaxy Power Spectrum” published in the Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics and recognized by the judging panel as “a novel framework combining effective field theory techniques with innovative data analysis to demonstrate that the full shape of the galaxy power spectrum can be used to provide important constraints on cosmological theories, and paving the way for better decoding of cosmological information from future surveys.”
The $2,500 Third Prize was awarded to Dr. Philip Mocz of Princeton University, Dr. Anastasia Fialkov of the University of Cambridge and the University of Sussex, Dr. Mark Vogelsberger of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dr. Fernando Becerra of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Dr. Mustafa A. Amin of Rice University, Dr. Sownak Bose of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Dr. Michael Boylan-Kolchin of The University of Texas at Austin, Dr. Pierre-Henri Chavanis of Universite Paul Sabatier, Dr. Lars Hernquist of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Dr. Lachlan Lancaster of Princeton University, Dr. Federico Marinacci of the University of Bologna, Dr. Victor Robles of The University of California, Irvine, and Dr. Jesús Zavala of the University of Iceland, for their work entitled “First star-forming structures in fuzzy cosmic filaments ” published in Physical Review Letters and recognized by the judging panel as “a first-of-its-kind hydrodynamic simulation that explores the interplay between ordinary matter and the wave-like interference effects of fuzzy dark matter in the first galaxies, predicting distinct signatures of fuzzy dark matter than may be within reach of detection by forthcoming missions.”
Dr. Buchalter, a former astrophysicist turned business entrepreneur, created the prize based on his own research and experience in cosmology, and the belief that fundamental new discoveries in cosmology still lie ahead, but may require challenging and breaking some paradigms accepted in the field today. “The 2020 prize winners are incredibly innovative efforts putting forth compelling new ideas that may evolve our understanding of the universe,” said Dr. Buchalter.
The prestigious judging panel for the prize is comprised of leading theoretical physicists noted for their work in cosmology, including Dr. Claudia de Rham of Imperial College London, Dr. Matthew Johnson of York University & Perimeter Institute, and Dr. Justin Khoury of the University of Pennsylvania.
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