New Directions in Physics Beyond the Standard Model

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This award funds the research activities of Professors Neal Weiner and Joshua Ruderman at New York University.The Standard Model (SM) of Particle Physics has been exceptionally successful in describing observed phenomena. However, a number of motivations exist for physics beyond the SM. This includes dark matter, which dominates the galaxies of the universe. Likewise, searches for new phenomena are now providing copious experimental data. The Large Hadron Collider has collected a sizable dataset from collisions of elementary particles at the highest energy ever in a terrestrial collider, and new searches for dark matter have placed significant constraints on some of the most popular dark-matter theories. So far these results seem consistent with the SM, and decisive non-gravitational evidence for dark matter has not emerged. But much more data is coming: the LHC is being upgraded to operate at higher energies and higher collision rates, and will eventually multiply the size of the current dataset by about a factor of 20. Future dark-matter direct-detection experiments such as LZ and XENONnT will probe dark matter within certain mass ranges associated with the weak interaction, and diverse experiments are emerging to probe dark matter at even lighter masses. Moreover, theoretical studies are now pointing to what the next generation of missions and experiments should look like. Understanding the implications of ongoing experiments and where they are lacking will help place the United States in a central position to uncover new physical laws or discover new elementary particles. As a consequence, funding theoretical research that helps leverage our already sizable investments in experimental physics is in the national interest. In this context, where significant data has arrived but much more is yet to come, Professors Weiner and Ruderman propose to carry out a diverse research program in theoretical particle physics, stretching across multiple length scales and in anticipation of multiple emerging datasets from experiments. This project will also have significant broader impacts. The PIs will give public lectures, including at senior centers, and will sponsor competitions for Physics in Media Fellowships to support the travel of journalism and film students to visit physics experiments that will become the subjects of their stories and movies.More technically, the PIs propose to develop a range of new models of dark matter and particle physics, aimed at understanding what the search capacity for existing and planned experiments will be, and to motivate new experiments. In particular, the PIs will study both thermal and non-thermal production mechanisms for dark matter, and how these mechanisms impact the signal sizes that can be expected in experiment. The PIs will also study models of neutrino physics that include new interactions for neutrinos and how they may be tested. Furthermore, the PIs will study physics that can be targeted at the high-luminosity LHC, including non-standard Higgs sectors and the development of precision measurements of Standard-Model processes as tests for subtle effects of new physics beyond the Standard Model. Finally, the PIs will respond to new data as it emerges to determine the corresponding theoretical implications.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.