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Ian M. Shoemaker
Theoretical Physicist, Center for Neutrino Physics at Virginia Tech
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My research is centered on the search for physics beyond the Standard Model of Particle Physics, with an emphasis on the unknown physics of Dark Matter and Neutrinos.
Dark Matter is invisible (“dark”) gravitating matter, which is supported by a number of astrophysical and cosmological observations. So far all data on Dark Matter stems from its gravitational impact. A number of complementary experimental probes are racing to discover a non-gravitational detection of Dark Matter, which would represent an enormous breakthrough in understanding the most common form of matter in the Universe.
Neutrinos, on the other hand, are particles in the Standard Model which have a small but nonzero mass. Unlike the other particles of the Standard Model, we do not understand the origin of their masses. As such, the observation that neutrinos have mass is an indication that they participate in some new physics. In addition to the “guaranteed” new physics associated with neutrino masses, neutrinos may participate in a variety of new interactions not present in the Standard Model such as Non-Standard interactions, Hidden Sector couplings, and new electromagnetic interactions.
You can find my research papers here.
Neutrinos as a Portal to New Physics and Astrophysics at KITP was a great success. Check out the talks:
Talks from the 4-day conference
Talks from the 1-day Teacher’s conference (good starting point for non-specialists)
In hidden sector models of Dark Matter, there may be more than one stable dark species.
This allows Dark Matter annihilation (the same process possibly responsible for the DM abundance), to be searched for at underground direct detection experiments. Read the paper here.
Neutrinos in nature have mass, but the Standard Model doesn’t account for this.
We showed that atmospheric neutrinos produced from cosmic rays bombarding the Earth can be used to search for new heavy “sterile” neutrinos. Such sterile neutrinos are predicted in a large number of new physics scenarios attempting to explain neutrino masses. We found that these new neutrinos can produce distinctive “double-bang” events at the IceCube experiment in Antarctica. Read the paper here.