This event was recorded on March 29, 2023 at Aspen Center for Physics during the 2023 DeWolf Foundation Physics Talks, in partnership with Aspen Public Radio.
In this talk, Tim M.P. Tait discusses the nature of dark matter, the mysterious substance whose existence is necessary to hold galaxies together, but whose fundamental nature remains unknown. This includes some of the ideas for what dark matter could be, and how they teach us lessons of how to write down a more fundamental description of nature at the very smallest distances, extending the Standard Model of particle physics which successfully describes ordinary matter. Tait goes over some of the key ideas we have for how to build experiments that could teach us more about dark matter, and how we can synthesize their results to build a kind of 'composite image’ of what the dark matter can (or can’t) look like.
About Tim M.P. Tait
Tim M.P. Tait is a Chancellor's Professor and Chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California, Irvine. His research interests include theoretical investigations of physics beyond the Standard Model of particle physics, particle physics phenomenology, high energy collider physics, and cosmology. Tait’s work involves both exploring new models and new phenomena, as well as theoretical interpretation of experiments. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society, recipient of the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel-Forschungspreis from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, and winner of the APS Division of Particles and Fields Mentorship Award in 2019. Tait received a B.Sc. in Physics from the University of California, San Diego, a Ph.D. in Physics from Michigan State University, and did postdoctoral work in the theoretical particle physics groups at Argonne National Lab and Fermilab.