Astrophysical Probes to New Physics Beyond the Standard Model

The Department of Physics in the College of Arts and Sciences welcomes Dr. Yue Zhao to present a physics virtual colloquia. Dr. Zhao is an assistant professor at the University of Utah.  His research interests are Dark Matter Searches, High Energy Phenomenology and Gravitational Wave.

Abstract

The Standard Model of particle physics provides the foundation of modern high energy physics. However, the Standard Model fails miserably in several aspects. First, it has no dark matter candidate.

Further, there are a few super tiny parameters, such as the strong CP phase, which remains to be explained. Both aspects point to the existence of new physics beyond the Standard Model. In this talk, I will present two novel ways of utilizing astrophysical observations to probe the existence of new physics. I will first talk about how to use the Gravitational Wave experiments, i.e. LIGO and LISA, to search for ultra-light dark photon dark matter. Using LIGO’s data, our result sets the world record on the unexplored parameter space. Then I will demonstrate that, with high spatial resolution, polarimetric imaging of a supermassive black hole by the Event Horizon Telescope can be used to probe the existence of axions. Through these two examples, we show that a nice bridge can be built between astrophysics and particle physics, and interesting particle physics questions can be answered by powerful astrophysical probes.

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