Prof. Tomer Volansky is working on particle physics phenomenology going beyond the Standard Model (SM). Topics include dark matter physics, collider phenomenology, Higgs physics, astroparticle physics, cosmoparticle physics, model building and supersymmetry. The goal of Volansky’s research is to understand better the microscopic quantum description of nature, its elementary particles, interactions and, as a consequence, the inferred evolution of our universe from the Big Bang till today.
Research achievements include: significant work on dark matter physics beyond the so called WIMP scenario, with emphasis on light dark matter. Until Volansky’s work in 2011, it was thought that such light dark matter cannot be directly detected. His work suggested new techniques to do so, with followups of new limits on such dark matter. Since then significant progress has been made and today Volansky is a co-spokeperson of a fully funded dedicated experiment (SENSEI) to search for light dark matter along the lines originally suggested. In addition, Volansky studied other experimental avenues to search for dark matter, many novel scenarios for the production of dark matter in the early universe, and astrophysical and cosmological constraints on various dark matter models. Volansky has also worked on LHC physics, including techniques to constrain new physics that exhibits odd tracks, Higgs collider phenomenology, its effective theory and its possible exotic decays (including lepton-jets for which he became a short-term member of the ATLAS collaboration), and new exotic particle production at colliders. Finally, Volansky studied extensively supersymmetry at low energies, model building applications, and its collider phenomenology.
Future directions include: cosmological solutions to the cosmological constant problem, dark matter searches with the SENSEI experiment, study of non-standard fuzzy dark matter and its astrophysical implications, effective dark matter theories for N-body simulations, model building beyond the Standard Model, and study of possible interpretations and implications of upcoming experimental results ranging from colliders to precision table-top experiments to astrophysical and cosmological observations.
