Beyond the Standard Model Cocktail: A Modern and Comprehensive Review of the Major Open Puzzles in Theoretical Particle Physics and Cosmology With a Focus on Heavy Dark Matter

This book provides a remarkable and complete survey of important questions at the interface between theoretical particle physics and cosmology.

After discussing the theoretical and experimental physics revolution that led to the rise of the Standard Model in the past century, the author reviews all the major open puzzles, among them the hierarchy problem, the small value of the cosmological constant, the matter-antimatter asymmetry, and the dark matter enigma, including the state-of-the-art regarding proposed solutions. Also addressed are the rapidly expanding fields of thermal dark matter, cosmological first-order phase transitions and gravitational-wave signatures. 

In addition, the book presents the original and interdisciplinary PhD research work of the author relating to Weakly-Interacting-Massive-Particles around the TeV scale, which are among the most studied dark matter candidates. Motivated by the absence of experimental evidence for such particles, this thesis explores the possibility that dark matter is much heavier than what is conventionally assumed.

During his Bachelor, Yann Gouttenoire had the opportunity to benefit from the excellent quality of courses at the Magistere of Fundamental Physics in Orsay, France. The next year in 2015, he received a 2-year scholarship at École Normale Supérieure Paris-Saclay. The first year, he got awarded the “Agrégation” while in the second year he earned his MS in Theoretical Physics from École Normale Supérieure rue d’Ulm. In 2017, he joined DESY in Hamburg, one of the world’s leading center for high-energy particle-physics research, where he studied the topics presented in this book. He defended his PhD on the 29th of September 2020 after which he got awarded the highest distinction from the University of Hamburg (“Summa Cum Laude”). In 2021, he earned an international Postdoctoral Fellowship in Tel Aviv University founded by the Azrieli Foundation.