Dark matter; Physics of the weak scale; Matter\/Antimatter asymmetry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dark matter makes up around 85% of the matter in the Universe and yet we have no explanation for it in the Standard Model of particle physics. As a particle theorist, my research focuses on proposing new ideas and new tests for dark matter in order to illuminate what this mysterious stuff actually is. Recently, I have become interested in using astronomical observations of galaxies and clusters to determine whether dark matter particles interact with each other through forces other than gravity. It is remarkable that the largest structures in the Universe, millions of light years in size, can be a laboratory to study the microscopic properties of dark matter particles. I also explore the idea that dark matter is made up of strongly-interacting constituents, much like protons and neutrons. Theories of this nature cannot be worked out using paper-and-pencil and I collaborate with lattice theorists to simulate dark matter's properties using supercomputers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","department":[6],"research-area":[9,13],"un-goal":[],"research-method":[30,29],"graduate-program-membership":[40],"graduate-program-physics":[68],"admin-faculty-title-department":[],"program":[],"class_list":["post-1013","faculty","type-faculty","status-publish","hentry","department-phas","research-area-astronomy","research-area-hep","research-method-computational","research-method-theoretical","graduate-program-membership-physics-gp","graduate-program-physics-grad-program-physics-full-member"],"yoast_head":"\n