New analysis from DESI announces a theory about the universe may need to be modified

Researchers at UC Santa Cruz, including SCIPP faculty affiliates Alexie Leauthaud, Constance Rockosi and postdoc Sven Heydenreich, are part of the team announcing a suprising new measurement of dark energy. The new results with the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) suggesting that dark energy, previously thought to be an elemental constant of nature, could be […]


SCIPP Scientists Publish New Study Connecting Supermassive Black Hole Formation to Self-Interacting Dark Matter

Under the guide of Professor Stefano Profumo, graduate student Grant Roberts and undergraduates Lila Braff, Aarna Garg, and Jackson O’Donnell have published a new study titled “Early formation of supermassive black holes from the collapse of strongly self-interacting dark matter.” The study aims to explain the presence of high-redshift supermassive black holes in the early […]


UCSC Student Story, “Magnetically Drawn to Science”

Christian Cagnino, a former Astrophysics student at UCSC is interning at Jefferson Lab through the DOE’s Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internship (SULI) program. Cagnino’s research, titled “Understanding the Characteristics of Magnetrons with Magnetic Field Trimming,” explores the potential of Magnetrons as alternative radio frequency sources for particle accelerators, but the implications are far-reaching overall. Mainly, Cagnino […]


Shiva Abbaszadeh receives $3.7M grant from DOE for Energy Earthshot Initiative

Earlier this year, SCIPP faculty member Shiva Abbaszadeh (Electrical and Computer Engineering) won a three-year $3.7M Department of Energy (DOE) Energy Earthshot award with a proposal to resolve the paradox of rhizosphere effect on soil carbon cycle. Abbaszadeh’s proposal “addresses the core mission of the Energy Earthshot by understanding how plant roots affect soil organic […]






Higgsinos under the microscope

Recent results from higgsino searches by the ATLAS collaboration have made their way into the CERN Courier. The existence of higgsino particles, predicted by theories of supersymmetry, could provide an explanation for the cosmological dark matter. SCIPPers Matthew Gignac, Bruce Schumm, and Giordon Stark contributed to the development of the disappearing track search and the overall combination of results.