PROPOSAL:
Dark Matter, Cosmology and Accelerator Physics
Dark matter is one the of cornerstones of modern cosmology, although it has not yet been directly detected, or produced in the laboratory. If dark matter is in the form of weakly-interacting massive particles, or WIMPs, then it will also represent a critical link between cosmology and the particle physics beyond the Standard Model. With a host of new dark matter experiments running and in various stages of preparation or R&D, the impending launch of new astrophysical probes, the anticipated turn-on of the Large Hadron Collider, and the planning of the International Linear Collider and Deep Underground Science and Engineering Lab, it is very timely to bring together members of these diverse communities to update the intellectual roadmap that connects these efforts.
What SUSY models might be detectable at the LHC and/or ILC? How would models consistent with LHC/ILC data constrain what might exist in the cosmos? How do we define an optimal program for finding new signals at the LHC and ILC informed by the latest thinking of phenomenologists and the results of astrophysics. How would a detection of WIMPs in an elastic-scattering "direct detection" experiment constrain particle physics? What consistency checks would we be able to perform to correlate constraints or detections across these diverse techniques to pin down the parameters of SUSY, or to know with confidence that particles in the lab are the same as those in the sky? How would we determine if the new particles produced in accelerators occur at the dark matter density, ie, are truly the dark matter indicated by WMAP, and inferred by observations of Galactic Clusters? Looking further ahead, how will what is seen in the coming few years inform the design of the International Linear Collider?
Several shorter workshops aimed at these questions have or will soon take place (For example: UW's INT, Aug 2005; Santa Monica, Feb 2006; and SUSY06, Irvine, June 2006). At Aspen, we propose to bring together an international group of theorists and experimentalists from the dark matter search community and the accelerator-based particle physics community to consider these questions. The goal of the workshop will be to produce a Dark Matter Resource Book, which presents the current understanding of the field and provides guidance on what we may learn in the future as new evidence emerges.
Participants:
We are contacting the following list of physicists at this time: Jim Alexander, Elena Aprile, Howard Baer, Ted Baltz, Marco Battaglia, Laura Baudis, Genevieve Belanger, Pierluigi Belli, Elliot Bloom, Wim de Boer, Fawzi Boudjema, Marcela Carena, Richard Cavanaugh, David Cerdeno, Juan Collar, Joakim Edsjo, John Ellis, Jonathan Feng, Katie Freese, Richard Gaitskell, Christiano Galbiati, Graciela Gelmini, Fabiola Gianotti, Francis Halzen, Sven Heinemeyer, Dan Hooper, Per Olof Hulth, Marc Kamionkowski, Gordon Kane, Nojiri Mihoko, Filip Moortgat, Harry Nelson, Jeff Martoff, Konstantin Matchev, Keith Olive, Luc Pape, Michael Peskin, Tilman Plehn, Giacomo Polesello, Stuart Raby, Steve Ritz, Albert De Roeck, Leszek Roszkowski, Carlo Rubbia, Bernard Sadoulet, Geraldine Servant, Stefan Shael, Tom Shutt, Nigel Smith, Neil Spooner, Glenn Starkman, Leo Stodolsky, Greg Tarle, Masahiro Teshima, Dan Tovey, Daniel Treille, Mani Tripathi, Mike Turner, Martin J. White, and Frank Wilczek.
Schedule:
A two-week workshop is ideal for bringing together experimentalists and physicists. Our possible start dates to ensure participants working on the LHC are:
25 June 2007 2 July 2007 9 July 2007
16 July 2007 is possible as a last resort but we would begin to lose LHC people in the second week.
ORGANIZERS:
Dan Akerib, Case Western Reserve University, [email protected] Paolo Gondolo, University of Utah, [email protected] Lawrence Krauss, Case Western Reserve University, [email protected] Maria Spiropolu, CERN, [email protected]
Please note: each organizer has read and approved the submitted proposal.
Contact person: Dan Akerib - 216-368-2813
The person responsible for working to ensure diversity: Dan Akerib