New Particles, Dark Matter and Beyond (MVSem)

Wintersemester 2025/2026
Dozent: Jäckel J, von Krosigk B
8 Teilnehmer/innen

The lecture provides an overview of the theoretical foundations and experimental strategies in the search for new particles beyond the Standard Model, with a particular focus on dark matter and related phenomena. It bridges theory and experiment, illustrating how the two disciplines complement and inspire each other. This seminar complements the lecture by highlighting certain related theories, experiments, searches, and aspects in general in more detail.

Part of the assessment consists of the seminar presentation, a report on the content of the seminar presentation, as well as the discussion and answers that arise in both. The presentation is given slightly more weight than the other two parts.

 

Presentation: The presentation should be no shorter than 25 minutes and no longer than 35 minutes. The reason for this relatively wide time range is that you should focus more on your audience during the presentation and learn to respond to them if necessary (“reading the room”). Do you feel like you’ve lost your audience? Then repeat the aspect again in different words. Do you feel like you are going too fast? Then take a moment to adjust your pace. This real-time adaptation to the situation is more important for the evaluation than delivering the presentation to the exact minute. All aspects discussed on the first day in the context of the good practice guidelines will also be included in the evaluation.

 

Discussion: Rule No. 1: do not interrupt the person asking the question, even if you think you know where they are going. Sometimes that’s wishful thinking, and it is important (and polite!) to hear the question in full. Also, make sure you always know a bit more than what you show on your slides and poster, so that you can answer the obvious questions. For more complex questions, or questions you cannot answer immediately, take your time to think before responding. Do not hesitate to admit if you do not have the answer right away. Physics is not a subject based on rote memorization. What matters is that you can work out the answer using your knowledge and understanding, possibly together with us. If you did not understand the question, feel free to ask for it to be rephrased.