Research Projects

The presence of dark matter (DM) in the universe is not yet known, leading to the development of the weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) paradigm. This paradigm allows for a DM candidate with mass and interaction strength around the electroweak ballpark, leading to observed DM abundance after thermal freeze-out. However, direct detection experiments have not found evidence of such WIMP DM particles for years. This project aims to focus on cosmological and gravitational wave probes of both WIMP and non-WIMP type DM models, focusing on models that can explain non-zero neutrino mass and baryon asymmetry. The project also explores the possibility of a strong first order phase transition (SFOPT) driven by DM or dark sector fields, as well as the formation of topological defects and the connection to the origin of baryon asymmetry in such models.