Baryogenesis, Dark Matter and Neutrinos: Comprehensive analyses and accurate methods in particle cosmology

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Julia Harz
• Subject Area: Nuclear and Elementary Particle Physics, Quantum Mechanics, Relativity, Fields
• Term: since 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 400234416

Although matter can appear in the form of particles and antiparticles, our Universe is overwhelmingly made of particles, forming atoms and molecules whose mass is dominated by the contributions of baryons, i.e. mainly protons and neutrons. The fact that we see hardly any antibaryons around means that at some point an imbalance, the baryon asymmetry of our Universe, had to be generated. Less evident but proven by many independent experiments, such as measurements of the orbits of stars within galaxies, is the need for an additional component of non-luminous matter, dark matter, which is known to be five times more abundant than ordinary baryons. Finally, another puzzle in modern physics is the existence of neutrino masses. Neutrinos are the lightest known fermionic particles, which our Standard Model of particle physics predicts to be massless. However, dedicated neutrino experiments have shown that neutrinos can mix with each other, which is only possible if they have a tiny, yet nonzero mass. All the above issues, the origin of the baryon asymmetry, the identity of dark matter, and neutrino masses, cannot be explained within the Standard Model, and thus point towards the existence of new physics awaiting discovery. The proposed research for the Emmy Noether group aims to make progress in the exciting quest of uncovering the unknown physics by working at the interphase between particle physics and cosmology, theory and experiment, and focusing on the following tasks:Performing comprehensive analyses using the complementarity of different particle physics and cosmological experiments to obtain new powerful constraints on theoretical models.Developing new tools which will enable unprecedented accuracy in theoretical calculations whose precision is still lagging behind current experimental measurements, thus hampering our ability to constraint models.Investigating possible theoretical connections between the mechanisms that explain the baryon asymmetry, dark matter and neutrino masses, and devising dedicated analyses of experimental data to optimally constraint candidate theories.

• DFG Programme: Independent Junior Research Groups