Benjamin Lehmann, Pappalardo Fellow

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Area of Physics

High Energy and Particle Theory

Research Interests

Ben Lehmann’s research is dedicated to understanding the nature and properties of dark matter.

Until recently, all signs pointed to a scenario in which dark matter is associated with new particle physics near the weak scale. But new experimental results have seriously challenged the most promising benchmark models, suggesting that the dark matter particle and its interactions could instead lie anywhere in an enormous parameter space.

Ben’s work focuses on probing this vast space by connecting dark matter particle physics to novel experimental and observational tools, including condensed matter systems, cosmological surveys and gravitational waves.

Biographical Sketch

Ben grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, and has been a long-time resident of the region. He went from a local high school to Stanford University, where he received a B.S. with honors in physics and an M.S. in mathematics. Ben then traveled down the coast to the University of California, Santa Cruz, for his Ph.D.

Beyond research, Ben is passionate about mentoring students and engaging in outreach to the wider community. He has taught everywhere from elementary schools to correctional facilities. Ben also enjoys singing, hiking, and a good loaf of challah.

Selected Publications

• Jeff A. Dror, Benjamin V. Lehmann, Hiren H. Patel, and Stefano Profumo. Discovering new forces with gravitational waves from supermassive black holes. Physical Review D, 104(8):083021, October 2021, 2105.04559. DOI 10.1103/PhysRevD.104.083021. 
• Yonit Hochberg, Yonatan Kahn, Noah Kurinsky, Benjamin V. Lehmann, To Chin Yu, and Karl K. Berggren. Determining Dark Matter–Electron Scattering Rates from the Dielectric Function. Physical Review Letters, 127:151802, October 2021, 2101.08263. DOI 10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.151802. 
• Wolfgang Altmannshofer, Benjamin V. Lehmann, and Stefano Profumo. Cosmological implications of the KOTO excess. Physical Review D, 102(8):083527, October 2020, 2006.05064. DOI 10.1103/PhysRevD.102.083527. 
• Benjamin V. Lehmann, Christian Johnson, Stefano Profumo, and Thomas Schwemberger. Direct detection of primordial black hole relics as dark matter. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2019(10):046–046, October 2019, 1906.06348. DOI 10.1088/1475-7516/2019/10/046.
• Benjamin V. Lehmann, Stefano Profumo, and Jackson Yant. The maximal-density mass function for primordial black hole dark matter. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2018(04):007, April 2018, 1801.00808. DOI 10.1088/1475-7516/2018/04/007.