Dark New Physics

Observations of the movements of galaxy clusters have led astronomers to conclude that a new source of matter exists in our universe, in addition to the visible matter that makes up the planets and stars that we see. This 'dark matter', so called because it does not interact with light, is estimated to be responsible for 85% of matter in the Universe.

Although particle physicists understand much about the particles that make up visible matter, we have not yet observed a particle corresponding to all the dark matter. The discovery of a dark matter candidate will revolutionise humanity's understanding of the universe we inhabit, and transform research in particle physics, astronomy, and beyond.

I will search for dark matter hidden in a 'dark sector' of new particles. Although these particles are not thought to interact with standard particles, and thus challenge conventional direct-detection approaches, they can connect to standard particles through so-called 'portal interactions'. I will harness data collected during collisions in the Large Hadron Collider beauty (LHCb) experiment at CERN to search for evidence of these interactions.

My proposal harnesses the statistical power of the new 'Run 3' (2022-2024) LHCb dataset, increasing the available data for dark-sector searches there by up to a factor of 30. Bigger datasets are good, but for dark-sector searches new detector coverage is even better, so I will build on my previous experience in charge of an LHCb detector project to lead the commissioning of a new experiment, CODEX-b, providing new sensitivity for dark-matter searches during Run 4 (2027-2030) and beyond.