David R. Tucker-Smith

Photo of David R. Tucker-Smith

Chair and Halvorsen Professor for Distinguished Teaching and Research of Physics

413-597-3306
Thompson Physics Rm 313
At Williams since 2003

Pronouns: he/him/his

Education

B.A. Amherst College (1995)
Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley, Physics (2001)
Postdoctoral Associate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2003)

Areas of Expertise

The Standard Model of particle physics (SM), which describes the electromagnetic, weak, and strong interactions of quarks and leptons, has been amazingly successful at explaining data from collider experiments.   Yet it has a number of apparent shortcomings.  For example, numerous observations provide evidence that the energy density associated with dark matter is much greater than that associated with ordinary matter.  The SM cannot explain this fact.  Also, the dynamics of the SM tend to drive the scale of electroweak symmetry breaking to be very large, so that to explain the experimentally measured values of the W and Z gauge boson masses requires an extreme (and to many, unbelievable) fine-tuning among certain parameters of the theory. This apparent problem – called the hierarchy problem – has motivated some of the most promising extensions SM.  I am interested in ideas for physics beyond the SM, and how they can be tested at the Large Hadron Collider and elsewhere.

Scholarship/Creative Work

Selected Publications

  • Baryogenesis and gravity waves from a UV-completed electroweak phase transition, J. Cline, A, Friedlander, D.-M. He, K. Kainulainen, B. Laurent, D Tucker-Smith, Phys.Rev.D 103 12, 123529 (2021).
  • Wall speed and shape in singlet-assisted strong electroweak phase transitions, A. Friedlander, I. Banta, J. Cline, D. Tucker-Smith, Phys.Rev.D 103 5, 055020 (2021).
  • Baryogenesis and dark matter from freeze-in, D. Tucker-Smith and B. Shuve, Phys.Rev. D101, 115023 (2020).
  • Electroweak baryogenesis from a dark sector, J. Cline, K. Kainulainen, and D. Tucker-Smith, Phys.Rev. D95, 115006 (2017).
  • Exotic decays of heavy B quarks, P. Fox  and D. Tucker-Smith, JHEP 1601, 038 (2016).
  • Searching for dilepton resonances below the Z mass at the LHC, I. Hoenig, G. Samach, and D. Tucker-Smith, Phys.Rev. D90, 075016 (2014).
  • Singlet-Doublet Dark Matter, Timothy Cohen, John Kearney, A. Pierce, and D. Tucker-Smith, Phys.Rev. D85, 075003 (2012).
  • Higgs friends and counterfeits at hadron colliders, P.J. Fox,  D. Tucker-Smith and N. Weiner, JHEP 1106, 127 (2011).
  • An Effective Z’, P.J. Fox, J. Liu, D. Tucker-Smith and N. Weiner, Phys.Rev. D84,115006 (2011).
  • Muonic Hydrogen and MeV Forces, D. Tucker-Smith and I. Yavin, Phys.Rev. D83, 101702 (2011).
  •  Inelastic Dark Matter in Light of DAMA/LIBRA, S. Chang, G.D. Kribs, D. Tucker-Smith, and N. Weiner, Phys. Rev. D 79, 043513 (2009).
  • Dijet Searches for Supersymmetry at the LHC, L. Randall and D. Tucker-Smith,  Phys. Rev. Lett. 101:221803 (2008).
  • Mixed Sneutrinos, Dark matter, and the LHC,
    Z. Thomas,  D. Tucker-Smith, and N. Weiner,
    Phys. Rev. D 77, 115015 (2008).
  • Color-Octet Scalars at the CERN LHC,
    M. Gerbush, T.J. Khoo, D.J. Phalen, A. Pierce, and D.Tucker-Smith, Phys. Rev. D 77, 095003 (2008).
  • Using Jet Mass to Discover Vector-Quarks at the LHC,
    W. Skiba and D.Tucker-Smith, Phys.Rev. D75 (2007) 115010.
  • Little Higgs Theories, M. Schmaltz and D. Tucker-Smith, Ann.Rev.Nucl.Part.Sci, Vol. 55 (2005) 229.
  •  What Precision Electroweak Physics Says About the SU(6)/Sp(6) Little Higgs, T. Gregoire,  D. Tucker-Smith, and J. Wacker Phys.Rev. D69 (2004) 115008.
  • Warped Supersymmetric Grand Unification, W. Goldberger, Y. Nomura, and D. Tucker-Smith, Phys. Rev. D 67, 075021 (2003).
  • Little Higgs Bosons from an Antisymmetric Condensate, I. Low, W. Skiba, and D. Tucker-Smith, Phys. Rev. D 66, 072001 (2002).
  • Inelastic Dark Matter, D. Tucker-Smith and N. Weiner, Phys. Rev. D 64, 043502 (2001).
  • Small Neutrino Masses from Supersymmetry Breaking, N. Arkani-Hamed, L.J. Hall, H. Murayama, D. Tucker-Smith, and N. Weiner, Phys. Rev. D 64, 115011 (2001).
  • Cosmological Constraints on Large Extra Dimensions, L.J. Hall and D. Tucker-Smith, Phys. Rev. D 60, 085008 (1999).

Current Committees

  • Faculty Interview Panel

Previous Posts

  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Postdoctoral Research Associate, 2001-2003