Peter W. Graham

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Peter W. Graham (* 1980 ) is an American physicist.

Graham graduated from Harvard University with a bachelor's degree and received his PhD from Stanford University in 2007 . In 2010 he became an assistant professor there.

It deals with physics beyond the Standard Model , both theoretically and through proposals for novel experiments using techniques from astrophysics, atomic physics and solid state physics.

Together with Surjeet Rajendran and others, he proposed the Cosmic Axion Spin Precession Experiment (CASPEr), which aims to detect axions as candidates for dark matter using NMR , and the DM Radio Pathfinder experiment, which aims to search for dark matter in the sector of hidden photons and axions with magnetometry and electromagnetic resonance. He also proposed with Rajendran and others to detect gravitational waves with atomic interferometry.

Together with David Kaplan and Surjeet Rajendran, he proposed a solution to the hierarchy problem with dynamic relaxation in the early universe instead of the usual new physics (such as supersymmetry, extra dimensions) on the electroweak scale of the Standard Model (or the anthropic principle). The relaxation field, which determines the inflation dynamics , also determines the Higgs mass according to Graham's model, and the value of the relaxation field is now close to one of its many local minima. At the beginning of the universe, however, it had much higher values ​​with a corresponding Higgs mass, possibly on the Planck scale. In the simplest version, the model by Graham and colleagues includes, in addition to the standard model, inflation and a QCD axion , which is identified with the relaxation. As soon as the quarks receive mass via the Higgs field, the axion / relaxation field is inversely frozen by interaction with the quarks. The model was inspired by a similar mechanism that Larry Abbott used in 1984 to explain why the cosmological constant is so small. The simplest version of the model, which identifies the relaxation with the axion, has been criticized by others and probably needs to be modified. The Axion is already a candidate for dark matter and was originally introduced as a solution to the strong CP problem in the Standard Model. The model by Graham and colleagues also attracted attention, as no supersymmetric particles have been discovered at the LHC, which were previously considered to be the most promising explanation of the hierarchy problem.

In 2017 he received the New Horizons in Physics Prize with Asimina Arvanitaki and Surjeet Rajendran for developing new experimental verifications of physics beyond the Standard Model. In 2014 he received an Early Career Award from the Department of Energy and he was a Terman Fellow at Stanford.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dmitry Budker, Peter W. Graham, Micah Ledbetter, Surjeet Rajendran, Alex Sushkov, Cosmic Axion Spin Precession Experiment (CASPEr), Phys. Rev. X 4, 2014, 021030, Arxiv, 2013
  2. ↑ Maximiliano Silva-Feaver, Saptarshi Chaudhuri, Hsiao-Mei Cho, Carl Dawson, Peter Graham, Kent Irwin, Stephen Kuenstner, Dale Li, Jeremy Mardon, Harvey Moseley, Richard Mule, Arran Phipps, Surjeet Rajendran, Zach Steffen, Betty Young: Design Overview of the DM Radio Pathfinder Experiment, Arxiv , 2016
  3. ↑ Peter W. Graham, Jason M. Hogan, Mark A. Kasevich, Surjeet Rajendran, A New Method for Gravitational Wave Detection with Atomic Sensors, Phys. Rev. Lett., Volume 110, 2013, p. 171102
  4. ↑ The hierarchy problem consists in the explanation of the relatively low Higgs mass (electroweak scale) in comparison to the Planck scale, from which it should theoretically receive interaction contributions to the mass
  5. ↑ If the Higgs were only five times heavier, there would be no complex atoms, V. Agrawal, SM Barr, JF Donoghue, D. Seckel, The anthropic principle and the mass scale of the Standard Model , Phys. Rev. D 57, 1998, pp: 5480-5492
  6. ↑ Peter W. Graham, David E. Kaplan, Surjeet Rajendran, Cosmological Relaxation of the Electroweak Scale, Phys. Rev. Lett., Volume 115, 2015, p. 221801, Arxiv
  7. ↑ Michael Dine, Viewpoint: Connecting the Higgs Mass with Cosmic History , APS, November 2015
  8. ↑ Natalie Wolchover, A New Theory to Explain the Higgs Mass, Quanta Magazine 2015
  9. ^ LF Abbott, A Mechanism for Reducing the Value of the Cosmological Constant, Phys. Lett. B, Vol. 150, 1985, p. 427
  10. ↑ Rick S. Gupta, Zohar Komargodski, Gilad Perez, Lorenzo Ubaldi, Is the relaxation an axion? , 2015
personal data
SURNAME Graham, Peter W.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American physicist
DATE OF BIRTH 1980