Astrophysical tests of beyond standard model physics

University Of California-Irvine, Irvine CA

Investigators

Abstract

Dark matter research is at an exciting juncture. The confluence of increasingly sensitive direct detection experiments, large indirect detection experiments, the discovery of more local group galaxies and the Large Hadron Collider is likely to dramatically broaden our understanding of dark matter in the next few years. The PI proposes to undertake novel investigations that deal with the collisionless and collisional aspects of dark matter including indirect detection of dark matter and coupling of dark matter and dark energy. The PI will also investigate how strong gravitational lensing data sets made available by future large sky surveys may be used to study dark energy. The PI will also investigate constraints from Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) on a large class of beyond standard model theories that have charged particles that decay during or after BBN. The education and outreach plan of this program is focused on the UC Irvine Physics Road Show program. The Road Show takes basic physics demonstrations, presented by UCI undergraduates, to an ethnically and economically diverse group of elementary and middle school students in schools in the neighboring districts.