PAC Webinar 51: Journey with Sourced Millicharged Particles and Dark Photons

PAC Webinar 51:
Speaker : Zhen Liu
Time and date : June 7, 2023 10:00 AM China Standard Time

Title:
Journey with Sourced Millicharged Particles and Dark Photons

Abstract:
Hidden U(1) symmetries are widely prevalent across numerous new physics models and have garnered significant attention. These symmetries give rise to intriguing testable phenomena, such as "dark photons" as the force mediators and "millicharged" particles representing the matter content. A diverse range of physics experiments and search strategies have been developed to investigate these phenomena. In this talk, I will discuss my recent work in exploring these elusive particles, covering both theoretical foundations and experimental results. I will focus on the unique aspects of controlled search approaches, where we actively source the fields under investigation and discuss the future prospects in this exciting research area.

Bio :
Zhen Liu is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota. Zhen received his Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh in 2015 with the thesis “Beyond Standard Model Physics at Current and Future Colliders” under the supervision of Tao Han. Zhen received M.Sc. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2011 and B.Sc. from Zhejiang University in 2009. After completing his Ph.D., Zhen conducted postdoctoral research in the Theory Department at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory between 2015-2018 and Maryland Center for Fundamental Physics at the University of Maryland between 2018-2020. Zhen’s research has a broad scope on phenomenology in high energy physics, spanning from new physics searches at collider facilities, such as the LHC and various future colliders (CEPC, muon colliders), neutrino facilities, such as the DUNE and ArgoNeuT experiment, as well as small-scale experiments, such as dark SRF, Windchime.