16 hrs
area: PT
prequel/pre-requisite: Advanced Quantum Field Theory for Particle Physics (HT
link to submit homework:
https://cloud.maths.ox.ac.uk/index.php/s/FgZcrWL9HgwwEen
Peccei-Quinn-Weinberg-Wilczek axion solution to strong CP problem. Axion phenomenology and possibilities for discovery.
Hierarchy Problem reconsidered, with introduction to supersymmetric, strong dynamics (composite pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone Higgs) and extra-dimensional (Arkani-Hamed-Dimopoulos-Dvali, and Randall-Sundrum) solutions of HP along with their successes and failures.
Thermal freeze-out and freeze-in mechanisms of dark matter (DM) production. Axion DM and thermal, defect, and misalignment production mechanisms for ultra-light DM. Dark "photon" DM. Baryon asymmetry and baryo-/lepto-genesis. Asymmetric DM. WIMP vs FIMP vs ultra-light field vs ultra-heavy (composite) vs Asymmetric DM. Cosmological phase transitions, defects, and gravitational waves.
Prof. John March-Russell