Beyond the Thermal WIMP Paradigm: Theoretical Motivations and Experimental Signatures

该奖项为新墨西哥州大学的Roughh Allahverdi教授的研究活动提供资金。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描述的，而85%是由暗物质（DM）组成的。 然而，DM的性质和起源仍然是粒子物理学和宇宙学界面上最深刻的问题之一。 一系列的直接和间接探测实验，加上大型强子对撞机的成功运行，将有助于我们发现DM并建立其粒子物理学起源。 这些实验提供的补充信息也将在解释宇宙的DM内容方面发挥关键作用。 该奖项资助的研究将研究DM产生机制的理论模型和观测特征，超越基于DM由弱相互作用无质量粒子组成的概念的主导范式。 因此，这一领域的研究通过促进科学在其最基本的方向之一的进步来促进国家利益： 发现和理解新的物理定律。 该奖项资助的研究也将产生重大的广泛影响。 Allahverdi教授将让研究生和本科生参与他的研究，从而为开始这一领域研究的初级物理学家提供关键培训。 PI还将通过高中生的工作阴影和指导，以及访问学校和公开讲座，将他的成果带给更广泛的受众。从技术上讲，该奖项支持的研究重点是具有双重目标的非热DM生产场景。 首先，PI希望研究非热DM的新理论模型和独特的实验信号。 在标准模型的几个扩展中，DM以非热的方式产生。 其次，PI希望探索原始黑洞（PBH）和非热DM之间的有趣联系，这种联系可能出现在具有非标准热历史的宇宙中。 为了实现这些目标，Allahverdi教授将建立新的非热DM粒子物理模型，通过DM间接检测实验和结构形成数据测试它们的观测信号，并研究这些模型中PBH和DM之间可能存在的联系的后果。 这些研究将帮助我们确定DM的理论起源及其在基础理论中的嵌入。 它们还将使我们能够使用DM作为宇宙热历史的窗口，当时它只有一秒钟的一小部分。 这远远早于目前涉及宇宙微波背景或大爆炸核合成的观测探测器提供的结果。

This award funds the research activities of Professor Rouzbeh Allahverdi at the University of New Mexico. We know from observations that only 15% of the matter in the universe is described by the Standard Model of particle physics, while 85% is made of dark matter (DM). However, the nature and origin of DM remains one of the most profound problems at the interface of particle physics and cosmology. A whole array of direct- and indirect-detection experiments, combined with the successful running of the Large Hadron Collider, 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 explaining the DM content of the universe. The research funded by this award will study theoretical models and observational signatures of DM production mechanisms beyond the dominant paradigm based on the notion that the DM consists of weakly interacting massless particles. Research in this area thus advances the national interest by promoting the progress of science in one of its most fundamental directions: the discovery and understanding of new physical law. 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 bring his results to a broader audience through job shadowing and mentorship of high-school students, as well as by visiting schools and giving public lectures. More technically, the research supported by this award focuses on scenarios of non-thermal DM production having a two-fold goal. First, the PI wishes to study novel theoretical models and distinct experimental signals of non-thermal DM. In several extensions of the Standard Model, the DM is produced in a non-thermal fashion. Second, the PI wishes to explore interesting connections between primordial black holes (PBHs) and non-thermal DM that can arise in a universe with non-standard thermal history. To achieve these objectives, Professor Allahverdi will build new particle-physics models of non-thermal DM, test their observational signals via DM indirect-detection experiments and structure-formation data, and examine consequences of possible connections between PBHs and DM in these models. These investigations will help us determine the theoretical origin of DM 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 only a tiny fraction of a second old. This is far earlier than that provided by the current observational probes involving the cosmic microwave background or Big-Bang nucleosynthesis.