SMEFT, Collider, Neutrino, Axion, and Dark Matter Phenomenology

This award funds the research of Professors James B. Dent, William Shepherd, and Joel W. Walker at Sam Houston State University.

Professors Dent, Shepherd, and Walker work to connect advances in theoretical physics to experimental results, with a focus on the properties of subatomic particles such as neutrinos and hypothetical particles called "axions". They will also study the properties of the mysterious "dark matter" which provides 80% of the matter in the universe, and generally study the physics that emerges from large underground particle colliders.

They will explore scenarios for new physics by developing new experimental search strategies, new data interpretations, new software tools, and new theoretical models. As a result, this project will advance the national interest in fundamental science by exploring and connecting each of these research areas in particle physics. Significant broader impacts will also be realized through the close supervision of undergraduate research students at Sam Houston State University, a primarily undergraduate institution that serves a diverse population.

The PIs will seek to guide students in developing their analytical, numerical, and creative skills through participation in journal publications and conference presentations, thereby creating a foundation for graduates to thrive in doctoral programs at major research universities.

More specifically, possible signatures of physics beyond the Standard Model at the Large Hadron Collider will be investigated through indirect effects encapsulated by the Standard Model Effective Field Theory, through the exploration of a new scale-invariant jet clustering algorithm, and through the development of public software tools that will facilitate such analyses. The PIs will also study coherent elastic neutrino-nucleus scattering, with an emphasis on the Mitchell Institute Neutrino Experiment at Reactor (MINER) collaboration.

Dent and Walker are members of MINER and will continue to contribute to the simulation and analysis framework efforts, with the expectation of providing theoretical interpretation as data is generated. Axion and axion-like particles will be investigated through possible interactions in the liquid noble and solid-state detectors used in dark matter and neutrino experiments (such as XENON, SuperCDMS, and MINER), including novel enhancements from optics-like Bragg and Borrmann mechanisms in crystal detectors.

This includes the exploration of the feasibility of a new experimental program to search for axions and axion-like particles through photon disappearance experiments in solid state detectors. The dark matter studies within this project will focus on novel signatures for low mass dark matter including plasmon excitations and the neutrino background for such a signal, the Migdal effect with possible avenues toward its experimental calibration, and inelastic dark matter models.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.