Exploring physics beyond the standard model: Astrophysical motivations and accelerator applications
Abstract
We report the motivation and results of a search for beryllium, Be, with electrons which violate the Pauli exclusion principle. We then present the run by run results of our completed search for the Pauli-forbidden 1 s4 state of Be, denoted by Be′. In contrast to most experiments of this type we have obtained unique samples with higher probability of Be′ retention. We set limits on the abundance of Be′ in metallic Be, Be ore, natural gas, and air with abundances around 10−11. Our results improve on those obtained in a previous search for Be′ by a factor of approximately 300. We also discuss the motivation and results from a search for strongly interacting massive particles (SIMPs) attached to gold (and briefly iron) nuclei. After discussing the cosmological motivations for such a particle we proceed to discuss the details of its interactions with gold before presenting our results. We are able to significantly constrain the existence of such SIMPs with abundances of less than 10−12 for low mass SIMPs (MS ≈ 3 amu) to 10−8 for superheavy SIMPs (MS ≈ 1, 578 amu). We also provide significant constraints on the possible SIMP contribution to the cosmological density parameter and rule out SIMPs with M s < 10 amu as a possible mechanism to create the desired condition, Ω = 1. As in the search for Be′, unique Au samples were obtained from a variety of sources with different histories ranging from 40 million year old gold nuggets from Australia to gold foils flown on NASA's LDEF satellite.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Elmore, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Astronomy|Astrophysics|Particle physics
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