Clarifying origins and acceleration mechanisms of the most energetic particles in the universe has been the 100-year endeavor, being one of the most intriguing mysteries in an interdisciplinary research among astroparticle physics, high-energy physics and nuclear physics. Since ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) are deflected less strongly by the Galactic and extra-galactic magnetic fields...
LHAASO keeps operating with high duty cycle and providing unique observations in gamma-ray sources and diffuse charged cosmic rays. Gamma-rays from the BOAT GRB, blazars, near-by AGNs and PeVatrons in our own galaxy are well detected. Physics associated with EBL, new physics searches, radiation mechanism of various sources are discussed. Particle acceleration in the galactic sources and...
The LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiment is actively collecting physics data in the search for WIMP dark matter and other novel physics interactions nearly a mile underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility. LZ achieves an unprecedented sensitivity for discovering WIMP-nucleon interactions by employing a low-background, 7-tonne liquid xenon time-projection chamber surrounded by a...
The hypothesis of Cold Dark Matter (CDM) has been spectacularly confirmed on the largest scales of the Universe and must now be stress-tested on sub-galactic scales. Many well-motivated and generic alternatives to CDM can leave spectacular signatures on precisely these scales, affecting the evolution of galaxies as well as their population statistics. Excitingly, over the course of the next...
The Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO) is the upcoming next-generation ground-based gamma-ray observatory. The CTAO will achieve superior sensitivity, angular, and spectral resolution over a broader energy range (tens of GeV to hundreds of TeV) compared to currently operating imaging air Cherenkov telescopes (IACTs). Full-sky coverage will be achieved with two IACT arrays in the...
In this talk, I’ll discuss the status and prospects of direct searches for >1 GeV dark matter, which includes TeV-scale astrophysical particles!
Decades of astrophysical observations point to the existence of a feebly interacting particle comprising 85% of the matter content of the universe. A promising candidate is the QCD axion, a natural product of the Peccei-Quinn mechanism that solves the strong CP problem. This talk will focus on the use of resonant haloscopes to search for axion dark matter, notably, the Axion Dark Matter...
I will discuss direct detection prospects for meV-GeV scale dark matter, including the SuperCDMS SNOLAB dark matter program, R&D towards meV-scale thresholds for scattering events, and new concepts in axion detection.
Ultra-high energy neutrinos (>100 PeV) are expected to be unique messengers to the distant universe. This is because the other classic UHE messengers--photons and cosmic rays--are attenuated for sources further away than ~100 MPc. Additionally, as neutral and weakly interacting particles, neutrinos travel in straight lines, and so they point at their sources. However, the flux of UHE neutrinos...
Over a decade after the discovery of diffuse astrophysical neutrinos, the first evidence of individual neutrino sources has emerged. These sources exhibit several distinct characteristics: 1) they are powerful and abundant; 2) they are likely opaque to the gamma rays that accompany neutrino production; and 3) extragalactic neutrino emitters are significantly more powerful than Galactic ones....
The LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Collaboration has observed ~100 gravitational-wave sources to date, including mergers between black holes, neutron stars, and mixed neutron star—black holes. These neutron stars and black holes connect many astrophysical puzzles, including the lives and deaths of stars, cosmic chemical enrichment, and the expansion history of the Universe. I will discuss some astrophysical...
Last year, multiple pulsar timing array collaborations across the globe announced the first evidence of a stochastic background of nHz-frequency gravitational waves. A population of inspiraling supermassive black hole binaries can generate a stochastic background, but there may also be contributions from exotic cosmological sources that formed around the time of the Big Bang. In this talk, I...
Primordial black holes, which could have potentially formed after inflation, can have significant implications for the early Universe's history. Such a population of black holes, which may have differing mass and spin, can undergo evaporation due to Hawking radiation at different points in time. In this talk, I will review the potential impact of this evaporation on various cosmological...
This talk will review the status of the Galactic Center Excess (GCE). Discovered fifteen years ago in Fermi data, the GCE appears almost exactly as WIMP dark matter annihilations were predicted to emerge in gamma rays. Despite this and the fact that the excess is seen at high significance, its exact nature remains unclear. I will discuss the status of various aspects of the excess that could...
In recent years, the study of Galactic cosmic ray leptons has advanced significantly, largely due to measurements of absolute fluxes of positrons and electrons by AMS-02, and to the direct measurements of the total lepton flux above TeV energies by DAMPE and CALET. In this talk, we discuss how these results refine our models of cosmic ray propagation and contribute to resolving outstanding...
Accelerator experiments, both collider and fixed-target, play a pivotal role in probing the dark sector and uncovering the nature of dark matter. This talk will provide an overview of current efforts and future plans in utilizing accelerators to explore a wide range of dark matter candidates, from WIMPs to light dark sector particles. The synergy and complementarity between accelerator...
How was dark matter produced in the early Universe? There is a growing diversity of particle physics models for dark matter, which can be organized by different mechanisms for dark matter production. In this talk I will chart phase diagrams for thermal and nonthermal production of dark matter, highlighting recent developments.
