CAREER: Higgs and Dark Sectors

该职业奖资助辛辛那提大学Stefania Gori教授的研究和推广活动。粒子物理学面临着两个基本问题，这两个问题指向了“新物理学”，它超出了我们目前的理解。 其中第一个是相对较轻的所谓希格斯玻色子的存在，正如大型强子对撞机（LHC）在2012年发现的那样。 这里最大的谜团是解释这种新粒子质量的来源。 第二个基本问题是理解所谓的“暗物质”的性质和起源，这种物质在整个宇宙中比普通物质普遍五倍。一种可能性是，暗物质可以与一个全新的暗粒子部分一起出现，迄今为止所进行的实验尚未发现这些暗粒子，因为这些粒子被假定只与已知粒子发生非常微弱的相互作用。 作为她拟议研究的一部分，Gori教授将开展一项雄心勃勃的研究计划，重点研究高能和高强度实验之间的界面上的这两个基本问题。她将探索具有多个希格斯玻色子的新模型，并研究扩展的暗区理论。 作为她工作的一部分，她还将为费米实验室现有和计划中的实验开发新的搜索策略，并通过搜索暗粒子来扩展其科学使命。 因此，Gori教授的研究通过推进我们对自然基本规律的理解，并可能加强在美国最重要的国家实验室之一所做的研究，进一步促进了国家利益。Gori教授还将启动一项针对代表性不足的少数民族（URM）的外联计划，将辛辛那提大学物理系与学生人口以女性或非洲裔美国人为主的当地高中和小学联系起来。 特别是，她将启动一个“妇女在干：从高中到学术界”计划，她将扩大当地学校的课后计划，主要是URM的学生团体。 从技术上讲，Gori教授将建立负责夸克和轻子质量的扩展扇区的新模型，并在低能和高能实验中探索这些模型的特征，重点是希格斯粒子和味道物理学之间的联系。Gori教授将为费米实验室现有和计划中的实验制定新的搜索策略：MINOS+，NOvA和DUNE近探测器以及SeaQuest核物理实验。这将允许搜索大量的暗区理论。Gori教授还将与实验合作密切合作，探索DUNE和SeaQuest的优化设置，以最大限度地提高其物理范围。Gori教授还将利用希格斯粒子和暗区之间的联系，以开发希格斯粒子衰变产生暗区粒子的场景，从而产生新的签名，这些签名可以在未来几年在LHC上进行调查。

This CAREER award funds the research and outreach activities of Professor Stefania Gori at the University of Cincinnati. Particle physics faces two fundamental problems that point to "new physics" lying beyond our current understanding. The first of these is the existence of a relatively light so-called Higgs boson, as discovered by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in 2012. The biggest mystery here is to explain the origin of the mass of this new particle. The second fundamental problem is to understand the nature and origin of the so-called "dark matter" that is five times more prevalent throughout the universe than ordinary matter. One possibility is that dark matter can arise together with a completely new sector of dark particles which have not been discovered by experiments conducted thus far because such particles are presumed to interact only very weakly with the known particles. As part of her proposed research, Professor Gori will pursue an ambitious research program focused on studying these two fundamental problems at the interface between high-energy and high-intensity experiments. She will explore new models with more than one Higgs boson and investigate extended dark-sector theories. As part of her work, she will also develop new search strategies for existing and planned experiments at Fermilab and extend its science mission with searches for dark particles. As such, Professor Gori's research furthers the national interest by advancing our understanding of the fundamental laws of nature and potentially enhancing the research done at one of the premier US national laboratories. Professor Gori will also initiate an outreach program aimed at underrepresented minorities (URMs), connecting the University of Cincinnati Physics Department with local high schools and elementary schools whose student populations are majority female or African-American. In particular, she will start a "Women in STEM: From High School to Academia" program, and she will broaden the after-school programs of local schools with predominantly URM student bodies. More technically, Professor Gori will build new models of extended sectors responsible for quark and lepton masses, and explore the signatures of such models at both low- and high-energy experiments, focusing on the connection between Higgs and flavor physics. Professor Gori will develop new search strategies for light dark sectors at existing and planned experiments at Fermilab: MINOS+, NOvA and the DUNE near detectors, and the SeaQuest nuclear physics experiment. This will allow searches for a vast set of dark-sector theories. Professor Gori will also work closely with the experimental collaborations to explore optimized setups for DUNE and SeaQuest to maximize their physics reach. Professor Gori will also exploit the connection between the Higgs and dark sectors in order to develop scenarios in which dark-sector particles are produced from Higgs decays, leading to novel signatures that can investigated over the coming years at the LHC.