Stefania Gori, UC Santa Cruz
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Abstract: Dark matter is believed to make up most of the matter in our Universe, yet its particle nature remains elusive. Traditionally, experimental searches have focused on dark matter candidates with masses near that of the Higgs boson. However, lighter dark matter particles, particularly those residing in a dark sector, are also theoretically well-motivated and arise naturally in many extensions of the Standard Model. Moreover, dark sectors can also address longstanding puzzles in particle physics and cosmology, such as the strong CP problem, which can be solved by axions or axion-like particles.
In this colloquium, I will present recent theoretical and phenomenological advances in the study of light dark sectors. I will then discuss new experimental opportunities at high-intensity accelerator facilities, focusing in particular on PIONEER and DarkQuest, which are uniquely positioned to explore viable light dark sector scenarios in the near future.
Bio: Stefania Gori is a Professor of theoretical particle physics at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC). She received her master's degree from Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa and her Ph.D. from Technical University of Munich in 2010. She held postdoctoral positions at the University of Chicago and at Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. She joined the faculty of the University of Cincinnati as an Assistant Professor before moving to UCSC in 2018. Stefania's research spans several topics, including Higgs physics, flavor physics, the physics of Dark Matter, neutrino physics, and, more recently, the physics of axions. She works closely with experimental collaborators to design new search strategies for discovering new particles, and is one of the proponents of the DarkQuest experiment at Fermilab. She received the National Science Foundation Career Award in 2016, and was recently elected a Fellow of the American Physics Society’s Division of Particle and Fields.
3:00 PM in PAS 201 / Zoom https://arizona.zoom.us/j/86395646910
Refreshments in PAS 236, 2:30PM