[Abstract]
"Dark Matter" Cube
Various astronomical measurements reveal a very mysterious form in the universe, called dark matter. The word "dark" is because we cannot see it by any telescopes. But its existence can be inferred from gravitational effects. Modern theories of particle physics attempt to describe the universe and predict a new particle for this matter. The dark matter particles (or dark particles in this lecture) have not yet been detected experimentally. In 2008, the world's most powerful proton accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), will operate and provide millions of millions of proton-proton (pp) collisions. So then, such dark particles could be created in the collisions. As one of many dark particle hunters, I will relate phenomena at a gigantic scale in the universe to the pp collisions at a very small scale (much smaller than a hydrogen atom); and explain how possibly one can measure the mass of the dark particle at the LHC. This will be the beginning of a long journey to understand the dark matter.

Movies and Images:
[An evidence for Dark Matter in the Universe (taken from NASA web site)]
[Standard Model Cube (use Window Media Player)]
["Dark Matter" Cube (jpeg) ]
Challenge Quiz (The solution will be posted later.)
[Standard Model Particle SUDOKU (jpeg) ]

Lecture at Saturday Morning Physics at TAMU (2008)

Lecture at TAMU REU2007 Seminar

Lecture at Saturday Morning Physics at TAMU (2007) From the Micro-Cosmos to the Universe: Explore the Fascinating World of Nuclear and Astro-Particle Physics!