Theoretical Elementary Particle Physics
Maxim Perelstein
Associate Professor of Physics
B.S., Physics, 1995, Moscow Institute for Physics and Technology, Russia. M.S., Physics, 1997, UCLA. Ph.D., Physics, 2000, Stanford University. Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 2000 - 2003. Assistant Professor, Cornell University, 2003-2008. Associate Professor, Cornell University, 2009-present.
Research Areas
Theoretical elementary particle physics; Cosmology
Current Research
My research is mainly focused on theory and phenomenology of electroweak symmetry breaking. While the fact that the symmetry is broken is universally accepted as one of the cornerstones of the standard model of particle physics, the mechanism responsible for this breaking is at present unknown. Several alternative mechanisms have been proposed by theorists. Each model predicts a rich variety of new physical phenomena such as new particles, interactions, and possibly even new compact dimensions of space. I am interested both in constructing new models of electroweak symmetry breaking, and in devising strategies for testing them experimentally. The latter area is especially exciting since relevant experiments will soon be performed at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) now under construction in Geneva, Switzerland. Examples of my recent or ongoing research in this direction include analyses of novel signatures of supersymmetric models, in particular in the so-called "golden" region of the parameter space; and a study of the power of the LHC detectors to discriminate among the models with similar signatures; conducted in collaboration with members of the Cornell high-energy experimental group.
I am also interested in theoretical cosmology, especially topics on the interface of particle physics and cosmology such as theoretical models for dark energy, dark matter, and inflation. For example, many models of electroweak symmetry breaking predict new particles which could constitute all or most of the cosmological dark matter. If such particles exist, it will be possible to produce them in the lab at next generation colliders such as the LHC. Recently my collaborators and I have developed an approach that allows to predict the production rates in a model-independent way, using the precise measurement of the cosmological dark matter abundance by the WMAP experiment.
Doing research with my group requires good working knowledge of quantum field theory and the standard model of particle physics, as well as some understanding of basic experimental techniques used in high energy physics.
Postdoc
Monika Blanke (joining October 2009)
Graduate Students
Bibhushan Shakya