Theoretical Particle Physics, Astrophysics and Cosmology

New York University, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

The intersection of particle physics, astrophysics, and cosmology is an exciting and data-driven field, where a combination of imaginative basic theory and observations has revolutionized our understanding of the Universe. The PI?s research focuses on several areas where the potential for new fundamental discoveries is particularly high: Dark Matter, Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays, and Galactic and Cosmic Magnetic Fields. Although Dark Matter (DM) is conventionally considered to be an as-yet-undiscovered particle arising in some extension of standard particle physics, instead, DM may be a manifestation of an entirely new world ? possibly as complex as our own ? whose properties we can only infer through gravity. For instance, if our world is a brane in a higher dimensional space, there could be other branes nearby in some new dimension, whose presence we could only discover through their gravitational effects. Although still inconclusive, evidence has been mounting that Dark Matter may have a long range interaction with itself, which the PI has recently shown would be a smoking gun for a disconnected Dark Sector. The PI, her collaborators and her students will extend simulations of cosmological structure formation and of the tidal stripping of dwarf galaxies bound to the Milky Way, to include the possibility of new forces in the Dark Sector. Detailed comparison with these and other observations will either show the presence of a new force and allow some properties of the Dark Sector to be inferred, or will put stringent limits on Dark Sector interactions. Related questions that will be investigated are: Do dark matter and dark energy interact with each other? Why is the abundance of dark matter about equal to that of ordinary matter? Another important topic of research is the highest energy particles in Nature ? ultrahigh energy cosmic rays (UHECRs). The aim is to pin down what they are, and how and where in the Universe they are accelerated or created. The third main effort is to map out the Galactic Magnetic Field with much greater accuracy than ever before, by making a combined fit of many different types of observations. The PI is involved in an international collaboration to develop state-of-the-art techniques for optimizing fits involving many parameters and hundreds of millions of measured data points. The PI intends to take the New York Schools Cosmic Particle Telescope (NYSCPT) project to the next stage of its successful partnership with NYC schools by prototyping rooftop water tank detectors and designing a full-sized The PI is involved in mentoring high school students, teacher and student participants of NYSCPT, women graduate students, postdoctoral researchers and junior faculty. She is also a founding participant of the NYU ?WINS? program to foster undergraduate women?s participation in science.