Particle Physics Origin of Dark Matter and Cosmological History

该奖项资助新墨西哥大学物理与天文系Rouzbeh Allahverdi教授的研究活动。我们从观测中知道，宇宙中只有15%的物质是由粒子物理学的标准模型（SM）描述的，而85%是由暗物质（DM）组成的。然而，暗物质的性质和起源仍然是粒子物理学和宇宙学交叉领域最深刻的问题之一。大型强子对撞机（LHC）的成功运行使我们处于发现超越SM的新物理学的边缘。这与一系列直接和间接探测实验相结合，将帮助我们发现暗物质并确定其粒子物理学起源。这些实验提供的补充信息也将在揭示早期宇宙的宇宙学历史方面发挥关键作用。由该奖项资助的研究将通过使用来自不同实验的互补信号来帮助确定暗物质的本质，并确定其起源。它还将研究可见物质和暗物质的数量相差不大的数值巧合的原因，并将研究暗物质和中微子之间可能的相互作用。由该奖项资助的研究也将产生重大而广泛的影响。Allahverdi教授将让研究生和本科生参与他的研究，从而为在该领域开始研究的初级物理学家提供重要的培训。此外，PI还将通过公开演讲和访问学校，向更广泛的受众推广他的研究成果。该奖项支持的研究有三个目标。首先，通过使用来自不同实验的互补信号来确定DM的热或非热来源。在SM的几个扩展中，DM是非热产生的。其次，研究可以解决重子-DM巧合难题的模型，因为通常重子和DM的密度可能会有很大的不同（因为它们产生于非常不同的时代）。第三，探索DM和中微子之间可能的联系，包括对中微子狄拉克或马约拉纳性质的可能敏感性。为了实现这些目标，Allahverdi教授根据间接探测搜索的数据研究了DM的各种粒子物理模型，并检验了它们对对撞机和直接探测实验的可测试预测。这些调查将有助于确定DM部门的更深层次的理论起源及其在基本理论中的嵌入。它们还将使我们能够利用DM作为宇宙热历史的窗口，当它只有不到一秒的时间时。这比目前的观测探测器，即宇宙微波背景（CMB）和大爆炸核合成（BBN）提供的时间要早得多。

This award funds the research activities of Professor Rouzbeh Allahverdi at the University of New Mexico Department of Physics and Astronomy. We know from observations that only 15% of the matter in the universe is described by the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics, while 85% is made of Dark Matter (DM). However, the nature and origin of DM remains as one of the most profound problems at the interface of particle physics and cosmology. The successful running of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has put us on the verge of discovering new physics beyond the SM. This, combined with a whole array of direct and indirect detection experiments, will help us discover the DM and establish its particle physics origin. The complementary information provided by these experiments will also play a crucial role in shedding light on the cosmological history of the early universe. The research funded by this award will be to help establish the nature of Dark Matter by using complementary signals from different experiments, and to determine its origin. It will also study the reason for the numerical coincidence that the amount of visible matter and dark matter are not too different, and will study possible interactions between Dark Matter and neutrinos. The research funded by this award will also have significant broader impacts. Professor Allahverdi will involve graduate and undergraduate students in his research, and thereby provide critical training to junior physicists beginning research in this field. The PI will additionally outreach his results to a broader audience by giving public lectures and visiting schools.The research supported by this award has a three-fold goal. First, by using complementary signals from different experiments to determine the thermal or non-thermal origin of DM. In several extensions of the SM, the DM is produced non-thermally. Second, to investigate models that can address the baryon-DM coincidence puzzle, since in general the densities of baryons and DM can be widely different (since they are produced at very different epochs). Third, to probe possible connections between the DM and neutrinos, including possible sensitivity to the Dirac or Majorana nature of neutrinos. To achieve these objectives, Professor Allahverdi studies various particle physics models of DM in light of data from indirect detection searches, and examines their testable predictions for collider and direct detection experiments. These investigations will help determine the deeper theoretical origin of the DM sector and its embedding within a fundamental theory. They will also enable us to use DM as a window to the thermal history of the universe when it was a tiny fraction of a second old. This is far earlier than that provided by current observational probes, namely the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) and the Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN).