This is a particularly ripe time for research at the boundary between particle physics and astrophysics and cosmology. This is due, in large part, to the fact that data is soon expected to emerge from a plethora of experiments in both particle physics and astrophysics. These include the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), experiments seeking the direct and indirect detection of Dark Matter, and Cosmic Microwave Background probes such as Planck. Indeed, in many instances these different experiments are complementary to each other, each providing a different window into the as-yet-unexplored physics beyond the Standard Model. In this proposal, Professor Tait aims to explore new theories for physics at the electroweak scale which sit at this interface between particle physics, astrophysics, and cosmology. His goal is to understand new phenomena which may be manifest at these experiments, provide theoretical descriptions of phenomena as they are discovered, and eventually fit them into a larger theoretical framework. Specific short-term goals of the PI include exploration of the signals provided by models with weakly bound states of dark matter at colliders and in cosmology, and exploration of signals of the so-called "Beautiful Mirrors" model at the LHC.
This effort is also envisioned to have several broader impacts. First, the PI will continue to participate in summer schools aimed at instructing graduate students working toward a PhD in theoretical or experimental high-energy physics. He will also compile a set of lecture notes which will be regularly updated, and include topics in the areas of collider physics and dark matter. These notes should provide an important resource for graduate students (or even postdocs and interested faculty in other subfields) in these rapidly evolving fields. Second, the PI plans outreach at the high-school level, to inform students (whose interests may lay outside the sciences) of the exciting advances taking place, and to encourage students to pursue a career in research.
" had a very succesful outcome, resulting in over 40 articles published in peer-reviewed journals. The work involved three postdoctoral scholars, all of whom went on to top notch faculty positions and three graduate students who are now postdoctoral scholars. Numerous requests for seminars and plenary talks at conferences about this work was received by the PI. The key findings were a language that can be used to parameterize the way the mysterious dark matter that makes up the bulk of the known galaxies can interact with the ordinary matter we are more familliar with. By devising this language, we were able to put systematic bounds on the nature of its interactions, thus better characterizing what we know about it, and revealing where more work is required to better understand it. Over the course of the project, a few tentative signals of dark matter were reported by different experiments; in these cases this description of its interactions was informative to either better define what kind of model of dark matter can produce that signal, or in other cases helped discredit it by showing that all possible explanations were in conflict with data from other experiments.
