Disclaimer: machine translated by DeepL which may contain errors.
Assistant Professor Atsushi Nishizawa wins the Young Scientists' Prize of the Commendation for Science and Technology by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology 2021
Junichi Yokoyama, Professor, Research Center for the Early Universe
Assistant Professor Atsushi Nishizawa
Assistant Professor Atsushi Nishizawa of the Research Center for the Early Universe has received the Young Scientist Award of the Commendation for Science and Technology by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology for his "Research for the Verification of the Theory of Gravity by Observation of Gravitational Waves". Einstein's general theory of relativity is a brilliant theory that explains all gravitational phenomena observed to date in a consistent manner, but it is not considered to be the final theory because it contains unsolved problems such as the inability to develop a consistent quantum theory and to solve the cosmic term problem observed as dark energy. Therefore, it is not considered to be a final theory. Therefore, the search for a theory of gravity that surpasses Einstein's is a major challenge, both theoretically and observationally.
Observations of gravitational waves made in 2016 are expected to provide significant clues to this goal, and new knowledge is already being obtained through the generation, propagation, and polarization properties of gravitational waves. Assistant Professor Nishizawa has conducted extensive research on gravitational waves, ranging from the possibility of testing various theories of gravity to the effects of environmental noise on laser interferometer observations. In particular, the general parameters for the verification of gravity theories using gravitational waves, which he introduced in 2017, are highly appreciated because they enable us to search a wide range of theories at once. In an era when Japan will be making significant experimental contributions to this field through KAGRA, the role he has played in theoretical analysis has been very significant, which led him to receive this award. We congratulate him on his achievement.
Published in the July 2021 issue of Faculty of Science News