Particle Physics

Can neutrinos really travel faster than light? Recently released experimental data from CERN suggests that they can. Join host Dr. Richard Epp and a panel of Perimeter Institute scientists in a live webinar to discuss this unexpected and puzzling experimental result, and some theoretical questions it might raise.

We suggest the existence of a fundamental connection between baryonic and dark matter. This is motivated by both the stability of these two types of matter as well as the observed similarity of their present-day densities. A unified genesis of baryonic and dark matter arises naturally in models in which proton stability is ensured by promoting the baryon number to a local symmetry. This is illustrated in a specific class of SUSY models using the Affleck-Dine mechanism. The dark matter candidate in these scenarios is charged under the baryon gauge symmetry and is required to have a mass at the weak scale. We discuss the collider constraints from B-factories, LEP, Tevatron, and LHC, as well as direct detection bounds. A baryonic dark force is shown to be consistent with all data for mediators as light as the GeV scale.

DEAP-3600 is a dark matter experiment using 3600 kg of liquid argon for direct WIMP search, with a target sensitivity to the spin-independent WIMP-nucleon cross-section of 10^{-46} cm^2. The detector is currently under construction at SNOLAB, located 2 km underground in Sudbury. In this single-phase liquid argon experiment, discrimination of beta/gamma backgrounds from the WIMP-induced nuclear recoil signal will be achieved by analyzing the pulse shape of scintillation light. A prototype 7-kg liquid argon detector has been taking data at SNOLAB since 2007 and has allowed extensive background studies, including significant radon and surface contamination reduction. The status of the experiment and of background reduction studies will be presented.

We describe a model of composite dark matter, bound by an asymptotically free gauge interaction. This leads to a novel relic history and to an enhancement of the present-day dark matter annihilation cross section. Potential indirect detection signals are discussed.

Many explanations have been proposed for the origin of dark matter and the creation of the baryon asymmetry, but very few of them address both cosmological puzzles at once. At the same time, the observed energy densities of dark matter and baryons are within a factor of five of each other hinting at a possible common origin. In this talk I will present a novel mechanism that generates both densities at once, with the dark matter species carrying a net baryon number. This gives rise to new and unusual dark matter signals such as the destruction of nucleons by dark matter scattering. I will describe some of these signals, and discuss how they might be detected in current and upcoming experiments and astrophysical observations.

I discuss the challenges for building models of ~10 GeV dark matter that can accommodate the numerous astrophysical constraints that threaten to exclude them, as well as direct detection constraints. A U(1)xU(1) hidden sector model with isospin violation, inelastic couplings, and annihilation into invisible products is suggested. I will also discuss similar but simpler models that could simultaneously explain excess 511 keV gamma rays from the galactic center and direct detection of light dark matter.

Stability on cosmological time scales constitutes one of the few robust guiding principles in the formulation of a theory of dark matter. This suggests the existence of a stabilizing symmetry associated to dark matter. I will explore several examples of stabilizing symmetries beyond the canonical Z_2 parity, such as Abelian Z_N discrete gauge symmetries, Non-Abelian discrete symmetries, and flavor symmetries.

In my talk I will discuss the relevant astrophysical input for dark matter detection experiments, i.e. the expected distribution of dark matter at the solar position. Based on high resolution N-body simulations I will then show that the formation history of the galactic dark matter halo leaves imprints in the velocity and energy distribution. In the second part of my talk I will focus on the fine-grained dark matter structure and discuss the importance of caustics and streams for detection experiments.