Sydney Spring School 2022

Australia/Sydney
SNH3001 (University of Sydney)

SNH3001

University of Sydney

Sydney Nanoscience Hub, Camperdown
Archil Kobakhidze, Chia-Ling Hsu (University of Sydney), Ciaran O'Hare (Sydney), Yevgeny Stadnik (Kavli IPMU, University of Tokyo)
Description

The 3rd Sydney Spring School on Particle Physics and Cosmology will be held between 30th November - 2nd December directly before The Dark Side of the Universe Conference 2022. The event is hosted by the Sydney Consortium for Particle Physics and Cosmology (Sydney CPPC) and held at The University of Sydney. The lectures will also be broadcast via Zoom for hybrid participation in case of positive COVID cases or other issues.

The school is aimed at graduate students and young postdocs. The following topics will be covered:

1. Cosmology
2. Dark matter
3. Particle physics anomalies
4. Neutrino astrophysics

Confirmed lecturers:  Jenni Adams, Pippa Cole, Will DeRocco, Ulrik Egede, Theresa Fruth, Yann Mambrini, Yevgeny Stadnik

Participation in the school is free, but registration is required for catering purposes.

The school will be held in seminar room Room 3001 in the Sydney Nanoscience Hub on the main Camperdown campus: see here for instructions. The room is directly on your right when you walk up the main steps of the building.

On-site Wifi information (in case Eduroam does not work):

Username: Spring School
Passcode: 59093234

 

Zoom link: https://uni-sydney.zoom.us/j/610935631

    • 1
      Opening/Introductions
    • 2
      Dark matter 1
      Speaker: Yann MAMBRINI
    • 11:00
      Coffee break
    • 3
      Dark matter 2
      Speaker: Yann MAMBRINI
    • 12:20
      Lunch
    • 4
      Flavour anomalies 1
      Speaker: Ulrik Egede (Monash University (AU))
    • 5
      Flavour anomalies 2
      Speaker: Ulrik Egede (Monash University (AU))
    • 15:20
      Coffee break
    • 6
      Experimental techniques for dark matter detection
      Speaker: Theresa Fruth
    • 7
      Discussion
    • 14
      Neutrino astrophysics
      Speaker: Jenni Adams (University of Canterbury)
    • 11:00
      Coffee break
    • 15
      Primordial black holes
      Speaker: Pippa Cole
    • 12:20
      Lunch
    • 16
      Axions
      Speaker: Ciaran O'Hare (Sydney)
    • 17
      Phenomenology of the companion-axion model

      We study the phenomenology of the ‘companion-axion model’ consisting of two coupled QCD axions. The second axion is required to rescue the Peccei-Quinn solution to the strong-CP problem from the effects of colored gravitational instantons. We investigate here the combined phenomenology of axion-axion and axionphoton interactions, recasting present and future single-axion bounds onto the companion-axion parameter
      space. Most remarkably, we predict that future axion searches with haloscopes and helioscopes may well discover two QCD axions, perhaps even within the same experiment

    • 18
      Decaying warm dark matter

      During the recent years, decaying dark matter models have received renewed interest as proposed solutions to the current cosmological tensions, mainly due to their flexible expansion histories and clustering properties. While much focus has been on decaying cold dark matter, in this talk, I will present our recent work on decaying warm dark matter based on our recent preprint arXiv:2205.13628. Decaying warm dark matter generalises its cold counterpart, and interpolates between a wide range of cosmological models, admitting considerable customisability with few model parameters. Among other things, I will present results from a comprehensive MCMC analysis, evaluating the consequence of the model on the Hubble and 𝜎8 tensions. Lastly, I emphasise the power of agnosticism with respect to the underlying particle physics realisation and discuss applications to majorons and neutrino decays, both of which can be described as decaying warm dark matter.

    • 19
      Sensitivity of Dark Matter-Nucleus Interactions to Nuclear Structure

      Non-relativistic effective field theory (NREFT) is one approach used for describing the interaction of WIMPS with ordinary matter. Among other factors, these interactions are expected to be affected by the structure of the atomic nuclei in the target. The sensitivity of the nuclear response components of the WIMP-nucleus scattering amplitude is investigated using shell model calculations for $^{19}$F, $^{23}$Na, $^{28, 29, 30}$Si, $^{40}$Ar, $^{127}$I, $^{70,72,73,74,76}$Ge and $^{128, 129, 130, 131, 132, 134, 136}$Xe. Resulting integrated nuclear response values are shown to be sensitive to some specifics of the nuclear structure calculations. The potential uncertainties that may arise from the nuclear components of WIMP-nucleus scattering amplitudes due to nuclear structure theory and modelling are thus highlighted.

    • 15:20
      Coffee break
    • 20
      Stellar Probes of BSM Physics
      Speaker: William DeRocco
    • 21
      Pub dinner and drinks