Schwächer als die schwache Wechselwirkung: Dunkle Materie und sterile Neutrinos in theoretischen Erweiterungen des Standardmodells

• Antragsteller: Professor Dr. Joachim Kopp
• Fachliche Zuordnung: Kern- und Elementarteilchenphysik, Quantenmechanik, Relativitätstheorie, Felder
• Förderung: Förderung von 2013 bis 2019
• Projektkennung: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Projektnummer 246162229

The goal of the proposed project is to advance our theoretical understanding of very weakly interacting particles - in particular dark matter and sterile neutrinos - by interpreting new experimental results and developing theoretical models based on these results. In the field of dark matter, our work will be based on new data from direct searches for dark matter-nucleus scattering, from indirect astrophysical searches and from collider experiments. We will examine in what way the data constrain existing theories of dark matter, and we will develop new models to resolve any tension that may be found. If experimental hints for dark matter should be found during the course of the project, we will shift our focus towards the theoretical interpretation of these results. We will study existing and new theoretical models in the context of the data and propose strategies for follow-up observations. In neutrino physics, we will carry out global fits to study the impact of new experimental data on the parameter space of light sterile neutrino scenarios. We will focus in particular on the parameter regions motivated by several existing experimental anomalies. We also plan to investigate how light sterile neutrinos can be incorporated into theoretical extensions of the standard 3-flavor framework. Moreover, we will study models that have the potential to explain both the dark matter mystery and the neutrino oscillation anomalies.

• DFG-Verfahren: Sachbeihilfen