The recent determination of the dark matter density in the Universe by the WMAP satellite has brought new attention to the interplay of results from particle physics experiments at accelerators and from cosmology. In this paper we discuss the prospects for finding direct evidence for a candidate dark matter particle at the LHC and the measurements which would be crucial for testing its compatib...

These lectures are intended to provide a brief pedagogical review of dark matter for the newcomer to the subject. We begin with a discussion of the astrophysical evidence for dark matter. The standard weakly-interacting massive particle (WIMP) scenario—the motivation, particle models, and detection techniques—is then reviewed. We provide a brief sampling of some recent variations to the standar...

Prior research indicates that one of the most difficult concepts for students to understand is that of the particle nature of matter. The How can I smell things from a distance? chemistry unit takes the approach of building students’ ideas through the construction and revision of models. The purpose of this study is to describe the changes in students’ understanding of the particle nature of ma...

We explore a new horizon of modified gravity from the viewpoint of the particle physics. As a concrete example, we take the F (R) gravity to raise a question: can a scalar particle (“scalaron”) derived from the F (R) gravity be a dark matter candidate? We place the limit on the form of function F (R) from the constraint on the scalaron as a dark matter. The role of the screening mechanism and c...

We study the phenomenon of mass loss by a scalar charge—a point particle that acts as a source for a noninteracting scalar field—in an expanding universe. The charge is placed on comoving world lines of two cosmological spacetimes: a de Sitter universe, and a spatially flat, matter-dominated universe. In both cases, we find that the particle’s rest mass is not a constant, but that it changes in...

Astrophysical observations originate from matter that interacts with radiation or transported particles. We develop a pragmatic approximation in order to enable multi-dimensional simulations with basic spectral radiative transfer when the available computational resources are not sufficient to solve the complete Boltzmann transport equation. The distribution function of the transported particle...

1. Preparation Methods for Nanoparticles and Cluster-Matter by “Physical” Means (U. Kreibig, Aachen) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1.1. Nanoparticles and Cluster Matter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1.2. Cluster-Matter Characterization and Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 1.3. Particle Stability ...

In the nearly saturated human respiratory tract, the presence of water-soluble substances in inhaled aerosols can cause change in the size distribution of particles. This consequently alters the lung deposition profiles of the inhaled airborne particles. The magnitude of particle deposition in the lung is affected by the soluble component present in the particle. This is estimated by a numerica...

[1] The movement of particulate matter within wetland surface waters affects nutrient cycling, contaminant mobility, and the evolution of the wetland landscape. Despite the importance of particle transport in influencing wetland form and function, there are few data sets that illuminate, in a quantitative way, the transport behavior of particulate matter within surface waters containing emergen...

We show that there are discrete gauge symmetries protect naturally heavy X particles from decaying into the ordinary light particles in the supersymmetric standard model. This makes the proposal very attractive that the superheavy X particles constitute a part of the dark matter in the present universe. It is more interesting that there are a class of discrete gauge symmetries which naturally a...