RUI: Theories of Dark Matter and Baryogenesis Confront Experiment

该 RUI 奖项资助威廉姆斯学院 David Tucker-Smith 教授的研究活动。 尽管粒子物理学的标准模型（SM）取得了巨大的成功，但它未能解决某些具有根本重要性的问题。 SM 没有提及暗物质的本质，暗物质是我们宇宙的神秘组成部分，在其演化过程中发挥了至关重要的作用。 SM也没有揭示物质与反物质的不对称性：如果SM是整个故事，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，留下的东西太少而无法形成今天周围的结构（星系、人类等）。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，重点是了解如何在现有和计划的实验中测试这些理论。 对这些主题的研究通过促进科学在一个基本方向上的进步来促进国家利益：了解我们宇宙的构成和支配宇宙的物理定律。 该项目的重大更广泛影响将来自本科生的参与。通过参与这项研究，威廉姆斯学院的学生将学习与粒子物理和宇宙学相关的重要思想、结果和方法。他们还将通过计算机编程、统计分析、手稿准备和口头陈述研究成果等活动来培养广泛适用的技能。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进行标准模型之外的物理学研究。 首先，他将开发和研究冻结重子发生模型，其中暗物质与标准模型希格斯粒子相互作用。 其次，他将对出现在冻结重子生成模型和许多其他模型中的弱电带电“门户”粒子的对撞机现象进行详细的蒙特卡罗研究。 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具有多个非冷暗物质粒子的场景。 最后，他将对电弱重子生成模型进行全面研究，其中暗物质在不对称性的产生中发挥着核心作用。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值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.