Exploring the Energy Ladder of the Universe

May 30, 2016 to June 10, 2016
Mainz Institute for Theoretical Physics, Johannes Gutenberg University
Europe/Berlin timezone

Despite the breathtaking progress in observational cosmology in the last 15 years the established ΛCDM cosmological model does not provide any direct indication of the existence of new energy scales, beyond the traditional Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) and recombination scales. This is also despite the fact that the solutions of the four cosmological puzzles, coming from a ΛCDM- Standard Model clash, strongly point to the existence of new energy scales in the early Universe and that these typically require temperatures much above the BBN scale. For example, models of baryogenesis usually require an energy scale close to or much above the electroweak scale. Models of Dark Matter production imply new energy scales spanning from keV, in the case of a sterile neutrino Dark Matter, to energies close, for example, to the GUT scale in the case of super heavy Dark Matter. This frustrating picture might rapidly change in the next years in view of the restart of the LHC collider (LHC second stage), new expected information on the light neutrino mass matrix (mixing parameters and absolute mass scale), new possible cosmological observations (e.g. a non-vanishing tensor-to-scalar perturbations ratio), and many other experimental sources.

The Scientific Program would discuss to what extent new energy scales in the early Universe can be considered established or on the verge of being excluded, in particular trying to address: (i) Whether a TeV scale for baryogenesis (including leptogenesis) is indicated or cornered from the data. (ii) Whether a Dark Matter traditional WIMP thermal production should be still considered the standard paradigm. (iii) How Hot was the early Universe', trying to pin down the most plausible value of the reheat temperature in the early Universe.

Indicatively the first week will be devoted to models able to address the cosmological puzzles (Dark Matter, Baryogenesis, Inflation and all possible connections) and the second week to phenomenological tools, implications and connections (e.g. kinetic theory in the early Universe, DM searches, constraints on inflationary models, reheat temperature bounds, tests of cosmological models with (astro-)particle physics).

The Scientific program will also host a

MINI-WORKSHOP ON BEYOND THE WIMP PARADIGM', WEDNESDAY 8 JUNE

Organizers: Rouzbeh Allahverdi (chair), Pasquale Di Bari, Steve King

SCHEDULE :
14.30 Marco Drewes, Sterile Neutrinos
15.00 Angnis Schmidt-May, Gravitational Origin of Dark Matter

15.30 Coffee

16.15 Stefano Morisi, Dark matter scenarios @ IceCube
16.45 Masaki Asano, Is DM elementary composite or partially composite?

Starts
Ends
Europe/Berlin
Mainz Institute for Theoretical Physics, Johannes Gutenberg University
02.430
Staudingerweg 9 / 2nd floor, 55128 Mainz
 Executive Summary (PDF) Participants (PDF) PIC1 PIC2 PIC3 PIC4 PIC5 PIC6 PIC7 Programme (PDF)

Organized by Pasquale Di Bari (Univ. Southampton), Steve King (Univ. Southampton), Qaisar Shafi (Univ. Delaware)

List of participants:

Kevork Abazajian                    University of California Irvine

Rouzbeh Allahverdi                 University of New Mexico

Stefan Antusch                        University of Basel

Borut Bajc                                University of Ljubljana

Guillermo Ballesteros              IPhT CEA-Saclay

Debasish Borah                       Indian Institute of Technology

Fedor Bezrukov                       University of Manchester

Sofiane Boucenna                   INFN - LNF

Laura Covi                               University of Gottingen

Hooman Davoudiasl                Brookhaven National Laboratory

Bhupal Dev                              MPIK Heidelberg

Koushik Dutta                          Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics

George Leontaris                     University of Ioannina

Danny Marfatia                        University of Hawaii

Anupam Mazumdar                 University of Lancaster

Alex Merle                                MPP Munich

Apostolos Pilaftsis                   University of Manchester

Ninetta Saviano                       MITP

Carlos Tamarit                         University of Durham