RUI: Theories of Dark Matter and Baryogenesis Confront Experiment

该奖项资助威廉姆斯学院戴维·塔克-史密斯教授的研究活动。尽管粒子物理的标准模型(SM)取得了惊人的成功，但它未能解决某些至关重要的问题。SM对暗物质的性质没有什么可说的，暗物质是我们宇宙的一个神秘组成部分，在其演化过程中发挥了关键作用。SM也没有阐明物质-反物质的不对称性：如果SM是整个故事的全部，那么大爆炸产生的几乎相同数量的粒子和反粒子将几乎完全相互湮灭，留下太少的东西来形成今天周围的结构(星系、人等等)。在他的工作中，塔克-史密斯教授将探索暗物质和物质-反物质不对称理论，重点是了解这些理论如何在现有的和计划中的实验中得到检验。对这些主题的研究促进了科学在一个基本方向上的进步，从而促进了国家利益：了解我们宇宙的组成和支配它的物理定律。这个项目的重大更广泛的影响将来自本科生的参与。通过从事这项研究，威廉姆斯学院的学生将学习到与粒子物理和宇宙学有关的重要思想、结果和方法。他们还将通过计算机编程、统计分析、手稿准备和研究成果口头陈述等活动发展广泛适用的技能。用更专业的术语来说，塔克-史密斯教授将沿着以下四个方向开展超越标准模型的物理研究。首先，他将开发和研究冻结重子发生模型，在该模型中，暗物质与标准模型希格斯粒子相互作用。其次，他将对冻结重子发生模型和许多其他模型中出现的带电弱电荷“门户”粒子的对撞机现象学进行详细的蒙特卡洛研究。第三，他将评估莱曼-阿尔法森林调查和其他宇宙学观测如何限制多个非冷暗物质粒子的情景。最后，他将对一个电弱重子发生模型进行全面研究，在该模型中，暗物质在不对称生成中发挥核心作用。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This RUI award funds the research activities of Professor David Tucker-Smith at Williams College. Despite its spectacular successes, the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics fails to address certain questions of fundamental importance. The SM has nothing to say about the nature of dark matter, a mysterious component of our universe that has played a crucial role in its evolution. Nor does the SM shed light on matter-antimatter asymmetry: if the SM were the whole story, virtually identical quantities of particles and antiparticles produced by the big bang would have annihilated each other nearly completely, leaving too little behind to form the structures around today (galaxies, people, and so on). In his work, Professor Tucker-Smith will explore theories of dark matter and matter-antimatter asymmetry, with a focus on understanding how these theories can be tested at existing and planned experiments. Research on these topics advances the national interest by promoting the progress of science in an essential direction: learning about the makeup of our universe and the physical laws that govern it. Significant broader impacts of this project will come from undergraduate involvement. By engaging in this research, Williams College students will learn important ideas, results, and methods relating to particle physics and cosmology. They will also develop broadly applicable skills through activities that will include computer programming, statistical analysis, manuscript preparation, and oral presentation of research findings.In more technical terms, Professor Tucker-Smith will conduct research in physics beyond the Standard Model along the following four directions. First, he will develop and study freeze-in baryogenesis models in which dark matter interacts with the Standard-Model Higgs particle. Second, he will perform detailed Monte Carlo studies of the collider phenomenology of electroweak-charged "portal" particles that appear in freeze-in baryogenesis models and many others. Third, he will assess how Lyman-alpha forest surveys and other cosmological observations constrain scenarios with multiple non-cold dark-matter particles. Finally, he will carry out a comprehensive study of a model of electroweak baryogenesis in which dark matter plays a central role in asymmetry generation.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.