High Energy Physics Seminar

• Why is there something in the universe instead of nothing?
• What is the nature of the dark matter that constitutes ∼85% of the matter content of the universe?

Each of these two questions brings together physics on the largest of ob- servable scales with the behavior ofparticles on the smallest of scales. Why matter formed and what caused it to cluster into galaxies and stars are among the most fundamental open questions in physics today. And the answers may lie inunderstanding the breakdowns of the Standard Model. In this talk, I will outline the search for NeutrinolessDouble Beta (0νββ) decay, a lepton number violating decay that could help explain the matter dominance ofthe universe. I will present the CUORE experiment, a ton- scale bolometeric detector that searches for thisand other rare decays, and its successor, CUPID, which aims to discover 0νββ decay in the InvertedHierarchy regime. I will then discuss the axion and its reemergence as a leading dark matter candidate. I willdescribe the ABRACADABRA-10 cm demonstrator experiment at MIT and show results from its recentsearches for axion dark matter. Finally, I will introduce DMRadio, a multi-phase program designed to searchfor the QCD axion in mass ranges lower than has ever been previously probed, and in parameter spaces thatare relevant to GUT-scale theories. DMRadio aims to be a leading next-generation ax- ion search, capable ofdiscovering the axion all the way down to the DFSZ band, and targets data taking in ∼2026.

Limited attendance in 469 Lauritsen.

Contact [email protected] and/or lkershaw for Zoom link.