Johannes Gutenberg University > Faculty 08 > Physics > Physics Research > Institutes & research facilities > Institute of Physics > Theoretical High Energy Physics (THEP) > AG Pedro Schwaller

The focus of my research group is on physics beyond the standard model and cosmology. We are trying to figure out why there is more matter than anti-matter in the Universe, what dark matter is made of and what kind of new physics the LHC might detect.

Some of the topics we are currently working on are:

- Axions and gravitational waves

- Using gravitational waves to probe dark sectors

- The relaxion mechanism as solution to the hierarchy problem

- Composite dark matter sectors and their phenomenology

- Long lived particles and non-standard collider signatures at the LHC

The AG Schwaller is part of PRISMA+/++, the Cluster of Excellence awarded by the DFG. Moreover, our work is supported by the Mainz Institute for Theoretical Physics, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and the German Academic Scholarship Foundation.

Implications for Pulsar Timing Arrays of Sub-solar Black Hole Detections: From LVK to Einstein Telescope and Cosmic Explorer. Yann Gouttenoire, Sokratis Trifinopoulosb, Miguel Vanvlasselaere (Aug 26, 2025).

Closing the Mass Window for Stupendously Large Black Holes. Yann Gouttenoire, Christopher Gerlach, Antonio J. Iovino, Nicholas Leister (Aug 11, 2025).

Exploring Nonperturbative Behaviour of Moments and Cumulants in Quantum Theories. Sebastian Schenk (Jun 11, 2025).

Generalized neutrino isocurvature. Christopher Gerlach, Wolfram Ratzinger, Pedro Schwaller (Apr 23, 2025).

Supercooled audible axions. JOURNAL OF HIGH ENERGY PHYSICS, 9. Christopher Gerlach, Daniel Schmitt, Pedro Schwaller.

Direct Detection of Ultralight Dark Matter via Charged Lepton Flavor Violation. Innes Bigaran, Patrick J. Fox, Yann Gouttenoire, Roni Harnik, Gordan Krnjaic, Tony Menzo, Jure Zupan (Mar 10, 2025).

A New Source for (QCD) Axion Dark Matter Production: Curvature-Induced. Cem Eröncel, Yann Gouttenoire, Ryosuke Sato, Géraldine Servant, Peera Simakachorn (Mar 6, 2025).

WIMPs and new physics interpretations of the PTA signal are incompatible. Yann Gouttenoire (Mar 5, 2025).

Curvature Perturbations from First-Order Phase Transitions: Implications to Black Holes and Gravitational Waves. Gabriele Franciolini, Yann Gouttenoire, Ryusuke Jinno (Mar 3, 2025).

Single pion resonant production in BSM scenarios: Cross sections and amplitudes. Jaime Hoefken Zink, Maura E. Ramirez-Quezada.(Feb 24, 2025)

Insights on the scale of leptogenesis from neutrino masses and neutrinoless double-beta decay. Alessandro Granelli, Koichi Hamaguchi, Maura E. Ramirez-Quezada, Kengo Shimada, Juntaro Wada, Tatsuya Yokoyama (Feb 14, 2025)

ALP Production from Abelian Gauge Bosons: Beyond Hard Thermal Loops. JOURNAL OF HIGH ENERGY PHYSICS, 6. Mathias Becker, Julia Harz, Enrico Morgante, Cristina Puchades-Ibáñez, Pedro Schwaller (Feb 03, 2025).

Universal Bound on the Duration of a Kination Era. Cem Eröncel, Yann Gouttenoire, Ryosuke Sato, Géraldine Servant, Peera Simakachorn (Jan 28, 2025)

Cosmological consequences of domain walls biased by quantum gravity. Yann Gouttenoire, Stephen F. King, Rishav Roshan, Xin Wang, Graham White, Masahito Yamazak (Jan 27, 2025).

Dark Showers from Sneaky Dark Matter. JOURNAL OF HIGH ENERGY PHYSICS 6. Adrian Carmona, Fatemeh Elahi, Christiane Scherb, Pedro Schwaller.

Signals of merging supermassive black holes in pulsar timing arrays. PHYSICAL REVIEW RESEARCH, 7. Paul Frederik Depta, Kai Schmidt-Hoberg, Pedro Schwaller, Carlo Tasillo (Feb 24, 2025)

Ultrahigh-Energy Particle Collisions and Heavy Dark Matter at Phase Transitions. PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 134. Iason Baldes, Maximilian Dichtl, Yann Gouttenoire, Filippo Sala (Feb 14, 2025)

Dark Showers from Sneaky Dark Matter. JOURNAL OF HIGH ENERGY PHYSICS 198 (2025). Adrian Carmona, Fatemeh Elahi, Christiane Scherb, Pedro Schwaller.

Dark matter interactions in white dwarfs: A multi-energy approach to capture mechanisms. JOURNAL OF HIGH ENERGY PHYSICS 160 (2025). Jaime Hoefken Zink, Shihwen Hor, Maura E. Ramirez-Quezada (Oct 16, 2024).

A coordinate-independent formalism for detecting high-frequency gravitational waves. JOURNAL OF HIGH ENERGY PHYSICS 195 (2025).Wolfram Ratzinger, Sebastian Schenk, Pedro Schwaller.

Signature of nonminimal scalar-gravity coupling with an early matter domination on the power spectrum of gravitational waves. PHYSICAL REVIEW D.109 (2024) 12. Amirsalar Nikandish, Shiva Rostam Zadeh, Reza Naderi, Fatemeh Elahi, Hadi Mehrabpour (Jun 6, 2024).

Vortex creep heating vs. dark matter heating in neutron stars. PHYSICS LETTERS B 848 (2024). Motoko Fujiwara, Koichi Hamaguchi, Natsumi Nagata, Maura E. Ramirez-Quezada (Jan, 2024).

Vortex creep heating in neutron stars. JCAP 03 (2024) 051. Motoko Fujiwara, Koichi Hamaguchi, Natsumi Nagata, Maura E. Ramirez-Quezada (Mar 26, 2024).

Charting the free energy landscape of metastable topological magnetic objects. PPHYSICAL REVIEW B 109 (2024). Juan Carlos Criado, Peter D. Hatton, Álvaro Lanza, Sebastian Schenk, Michael Spannowsky (May 03, 2024).

A full list of the group's publications on INSPIRE

A full list of Pedro Schwaller's publications on INSPIRE

Winter Semester 2025/26

Arbeitsgruppenseminar zur Physik jenseits des Standardmodells
Instructor: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Pedro Schwaller
Einführungsveranstaltung Physik B.Sc./B.Ed./Angewandte Physik B.Sc.
Instructor: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Michael Ostrick; Dr. Christian Schmitt; Univ.-Prof. Dr. Pedro Schwaller
Seminar über aktuelle Themen der theoretischen Teilchenphysik ("Theoriepalaver")
Instructor: Prof. Dr. Julia Harz; Prof. Dr. Hans Jockers; Univ-Prof. Dr. Joachim Kopp; Univ.-Prof. Dr. Matthias Neubert; Univ.-Prof. Dr. Pedro Schwaller; Univ.-Prof. Dr. Stefan Weinzierl

SoSe 2026

ALP Production from Abelian Gauge Bosons

For opportunities to perform a B.Sc. or M.Sc. thesis in theoretical physics, please contact Pedro Schwaller, pedro.schwaller@uni-mainz.de.

We are also always interested to support applications for PhD fellowships (e.g. Studienstiftung and DAAD) and postdoctoral fellowships (e.g. from the Humboldt foundation) and junior research group leaders (ERC, Emmy Noether program, Sofja Kovalevskaja Award).

Kosmologie des frühen Universums