BSM Model Building

It is well-known that the Standard Model, though very successful, is incomplete and leaves many unanswered questions: the nature of neutrino mass and dark matter, the origin of CP-violation, the hierarchy problem, and why there are three generations of quarks and leptons to name just a few. The purpose of Beyond the SM physics is to attempt to address one or more of these questions in a manner that can be directly or indirectly tested by experiments at existing and/or future planned accelerators and/or by astrophysical observations.  BSM physics encompasses both the extensions of existing new physics models, e.g., supersymmetry and extra dimensions, into previously unexplored territory as well as the construction of entirely new models for solving these and other problems. BSM also attempts to address any of the apparent `anomalies’ that arise from time to time across the wide array of experiments of different kinds as these provide motivation to learn new ideas by pushing existing theoretical boundaries outward. 

Tom Rizzo has a broad interest in BSM phenomenology and model building but has most recently been involved in the construction, exploration and testing of UV-models that lead to the  Kinetic Mixing of the familiar photon and the `dark’ photon which then mediates the low-energy interactions between the SM and light thermal dark matter. KM can be only generated at loop level via the existence of new portal matter particles which carry both SM as well as dark gauge quantum numbers. Due to constraints from precision measurements and LHC direct searches, PM states can only be complex scalars and/or vector-like fermions and will lead to unusual signatures at colliders. The masses of the PM fields may also be linked to other new physics mass scales such as that associated with the neutrino see-saw.