When I was granted a Danish Villum Kann Rasmussen post-doctoral
fellowship to do research in theoretical particle physics at Oxford I was obviously
very thrilled. It is right now a very exciting time in particle physics where hopefully
we are on the verge of great discoveries. Most notably The Large Hadron
Collider (LHC) at CERN in Switzerland - the largest experiment in the history
of particle physics - has now begun. The experiment will recreate the
conditions in the early Universe just after the Big Bang with the aim of
uncovering new fundamental laws of Nature. As a theorist, I work on
constructing such new laws and making predictions based on them that can be
tested at experiments like the LHC. To understand the results of this and other
complicated experiments the knowledge and close collaboration of both
theoretical and experimental particle physicists is needed. I had applied to go
to Oxford because it has world-class research groups in both of these areas as
well as cosmology. However, I was also worried that arriving with a fellowship
from Denmark and not being associated with a specific research project, it
could be hard to get involved in collaborations. I am very happy to report that
this was not the case. Coming to the theoretical particle physics group at
Oxford has surpassed both my expectations and even my hopes for the two years.
I was very warmly received here and it has been a very productive time for me. I
have found that the research environment is both extremely competent while
being very relaxed and enjoyable. I have also enjoyed getting to know the Oxford students through tutoring
an undergraduate course during my first year and lecturing a graduate course in
my second year here.
My research is on ‘’beyond Standard Model” physics: The
Standard Model, refers to the set of known elementary particles and the known laws
of their interactions - such as electromagnetic and gravitational interactions.
The “beyond” refers to the known incompleteness of this model, and our efforts
to rectify it. For example, currently we can only account for roughly one fifth
of the mass or matter in the Universe in terms of the known elementary
particles: It is impossible to “weigh” the observed Galaxies in the Universe by
measuring how fast they rotate. Only about
a fifth of their mass can be made up of known particles, since all these shine
light in some form or another which can be independently observed. In the end there
is always this big deficit in the mass budget and we are forced to conclude
that most of the Universe is made up of some particles yet unknown to us. One
of the big quests in modern particle physics is to understand what they are and
it is one of the aims of the LHC to directly produce and observe this elusive
dark matter in the laboratory.
As part of my research I have been constructing and studying
models of dark matter. For example, with Professor Subir Sarkar, who is a world
expert on dark matter and cosmology at Oxford, we proposed that of all places dark
matter might be lurking in the sun! This is because the
sun has been whizzing around the galaxy for five billion years, sweeping up a
lot of dark matter (provided it is out there!) as it goes, which then settles
into the core of the sun. This in turn has effects on the sun’s properties at a
level which will be observable in forthcoming experiments. These experiments
will therefore soon test this hypothesis. After our work was published in a
physics journal it was featured more widely in the New Scientist and in Wired
Magazine.
I am very grateful for having received the Anglo-Danish
Society Award. During our first year in Oxford my girlfriend studied for a
master degree in theology. We therefore had to pay for her studies and for both
our living expenses out of one salary and the award provided a very welcome
financial help during this year. However, first and foremost it is a recognition
of your work that helps build academic confidence at an early stage, which I
think is very important.
Finally the award reception at the Danish embassy in London
was a nice opportunity to meet the people behind the award and get to know
other Danish students in the UK.
I am currently part of exciting research projects with
several groups in the department and I plan to “stay-on” two more years after
my current fellowship ends in May, on a new grant from
Oxford.
