Obiettivo
Dark Matter constitutes about 80% of the total matter of the Universe, yet almost nothing is known of its nature: despite the huge experimental and theoretical efforts of the last decades, its true identity is yet to be determined. The recent years and the next few years, however, see several experimental exploratory techniques approaching for the first time the TeV scale, in a multi-faceted attack to the problem: the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in particle physics, the PAMELA and AMS-02 satellites in charged cosmic ray astronomy and the FERMI telescope in gamma ray astronomy. Since general theoretical arguments lead to believe that Dark Matter is a particle inherently related to the TeV scale, the stakes are high of being finally close to the physics that holds the key of the puzzle.
The NewDark project aims at exploring selected new directions in Dark Matter phenomenology, in a multi-disciplinary approach that has its roots in theoretical particle physics and cosmology but constantly looks at astrophysical observations and experimental particle physics results, making the most of the bi-directional interactions. The ultimate goal of the project, as part of the effort at the global scale, is the identification of the nature of the Dark Matter and the exploration of its full phenomenology.
The project is organized around five main themes of Dark Matter research: theory model building, collider signatures, direct detection, indirect detection and astrophysical/cosmological implications. For each one of these, some selected groundbreaking objectives are identified. The emphasis is on new, non-traditional directions, building on the experience gained by the community in studying more traditional avenues and applying it to the new scenarios.
The project requires funds to build up a small but structured multi-disciplinary research team (hiring 4 young post-docs with diverse expertise) and allow it to work on this frontier of astroparticle physics.
Campo scientifico
- natural sciencesphysical sciencestheoretical physicsparticle physicsparticle accelerator
- engineering and technologymechanical engineeringvehicle engineeringaerospace engineeringsatellite technology
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesastronomyobservational astronomygamma-ray astronomy
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesastronomyastrophysicsdark matter
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesastronomyphysical cosmology
Invito a presentare proposte
ERC-2011-StG_20101014
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Meccanismo di finanziamento
ERC-SG - ERC Starting GrantIstituzione ospitante
75794 Paris
Francia