This CAREER grant funds the research of Professor Jure Zupan at the University of Cincinnati.
Professor Zupan will investigate unsolved issues pertaining to dark matter by exploring the possible connections between dark matter and flavor physics. Indeed, both topics contain deep mysteries about which physicists have relatively little information. The Standard Model of particle physics is built around the observation that nature contains three separate generations of quarks and leptons. These generations of particles all appear identical in terms of their charges and interactions, and differ only in their masses. They also mix amongst each other in non-trivial ways. "Flavor physics" is a general term that encapsulates the physics of this generational structure. Professor Zupan aims to use ideas from flavor physics in order to understand properties of "dark matter" --- i.e., matter which interacts only gravitationally but which is not luminous. For example, it turns out that the flavor symmetries which might explain the observed pattern of masses of the known elementary particles can also have profound implications for the stability of dark matter and its interactions with visible matter. This in turn has implications for dark-matter searches at colliders, potentially leading to novel search signatures. The research proposed by Professor Zupan will focus on the detection of dark matter in direct detection experiments, the indirect astrophysical signatures of dark matter, and signals of dark-matter production at colliders.
This project is also envisioned to have significant broader impacts. Professor Zupan will continue his participation in public outreach activities, such as organization of talks in Science Cafes and other informal venues. He will also act as a mentor in the hands-on particle-physics QuarkNet program which is aimed at high-school educators and students. He will also establish a "Fun Science and Math Day" at middle schools in Cincinnati, where research academics would replace math teachers for a day in order to teach math in novel ways. To make the experience more permanent for the students, Professor Zupan will also distribute a series of illustrated one-line comics about everyday questions such as "Why is sky blue?" with scientifically sound but simple answers. Such materials will be based on the already-successful outreach materials that he developed previously in Slovenia. Finally, Professor Zupan will also establish a website where questions and answers from the students will be collected and made available to a wider audience.
