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 motions), inflation (introduced to explain the horizon and flatness problems), 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 whose primary motivation is to explain the original phenomenon. In effect, there is a one-to-one trading of unknowns, so to speak. If the aim of science is to reduce the number of unknowns and create an understanding from first principles, then these ideas would seem to fall short by those measures.
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. The prize was created in 2014 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.