Beyond the Standard Model Paradigms of Particle Physics

Abstract: The research is motivated by the big open questions of
Particle Physics: the nature of the dark matter content of the universe,
the origin of the matter (connected to the baryon-antibaryon
asymmetry), and the origin of neutrino masses. Many extensions
beyond the Standard Model (SM) have been proposed to address
these questions. They predict observable signatures in terrestrial
experiments, in particular at particle colliders like the Large Hadron
Collider at CERN. Most of these extensions of the SM contain particles
like dark photons, axions or axion-like particles, and sterile neutrinos,
all of which have very interesting properties.
The research focus of this PhD research project will be on elementary
particles with lifetimes that are long compared to the known particles;
so-called long-lived particles (LLPs). Such LLPs are very difficult to
detect for technical reasons, especially in high-energy collisions in
particle collider experiments, but may be more easily discovered and
studied in other experiments.
In the project the student will go beyond the standard paradigm of
discovering the answer to the big open questions via high-energy
collider experiments, by investigating New Physics also in other
environments. Particular focus will be on cosmic-ray-produced LLPs
and their detection via dark matter and neutrino experiments, but also
on possible future collider experiments.