Newcastle Particle Cosmology Programme

Understanding the fundamental nature of dark matter remains one of the major unsolved problems of particle physics and cosmology. The particulate Cold Dark Matter (CDM) model has been extremely successful in describing cosmological observations across cosmic scales, but discrepancies have sparked increasing interest in an alternative dark matter model based on ultralight scalar fields. The Newcastle particle cosmology programme aims to exploit the physics underlying these ultralight scalar models, in order:

to find the phenomenological mass and coupling parameters of cosmic ultralight fields.
to exploit open system theory to couple coherent and incoherent fields. 
explore the consequences of dark matter quantum droplets, either in vacuum or in a thermal environment.
to push forward the theory of false vacuum decay.

These new results will enhance our knowledge of what the universe is made of and
how fundamental particle physics has influenced the way it has evolved from the
big bang to the present day.