Dark Matter, Neutrino, and Astroparticle physics research group (DNA group)

Dark matter is one of the most significant mysteries in modern science. It is a form of matter that does not emit, absorb, or reflect light, making it completely invisible to our current electromagnetic instruments. We only know it exists because of its gravitational pull on visible matter.

While normal matter (atoms, stars, planets) makes up about 5% of the universe, dark matter accounts for roughly 27%. It acts as a "cosmic glue" that provides the extra gravity needed to hold galaxies together. Without it, galaxies would fly apart because the visible stars don't have enough mass to stay in orbit at the high speeds they travel.

Dark matter is the ultimate bridge between the very small (particle physics) and the very large (cosmology).

Neutrino physics is the study of one of the most elusive and abundant particles in the universe. Neutrinos are subatomic particles that are nearly massless, carry no electric charge, and interact almost exclusively through the weak nuclear force.

In the original Standard Model, neutrinos were assumed to be massless. However, the discovery of neutrino oscillations (where neutrinos change "flavor" as they travel) proved that they must have a non-zero, albeit tiny, mass. Because the Standard Model has no mechanism to explain why neutrino masses are so much smaller than those of other particles (like electrons), neutrino physics is a primary gateway to BSM physics. This discrepancy suggests new particles or forces exist at energy scales that experiments have not yet reached.

Astroparticle physics uses subatomic particles messengers (like neutrinos, gamma rays, and cosmic rays) to study the universe's most extreme environments, bridging the gap between the infinitely small (particles) and the infinitely large (the cosmos).

In astroparticle physics, the study of high-energy cosmic ray electrons and positrons serves as a vital probe for new physics. While most cosmic rays are protons, the observed "positron excess"—a higher-than-expected ratio of antimatter positrons at high energies—challenges the Standard Model, which predicts they should only be secondary products of interstellar collisions. This discrepancy points to primary sources: either nearby astrophysical "engines" like pulsars or the more exotic possibility of dark matter particles annihilating in our galactic neighborhood. Detectors like AMS-02 and the future SWGO aim to distinguish between these scenarios by precisely measuring the energy "cutoff" of these particles, potentially revealing a signature of physics beyond the Standard Model.