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Department of Physics » Physics Home Page » Faculty & Staff » Desmond Villalba
Faculty picture of Desmond Villalba

Desmond Villalba

Research:

Desmond’s primary research interest is in theoretical high energy particle physics and cosmology. Essentially, how do tiny sub-atomic particles interact, and how do they affect the Universe around us? Through analytical and computational analysis, we can begin to uncover the mysteries of the Universe. Dr. Villalba also works on projects that focus on green energy technology and applications using 3D printers, computational fluid dynamic software, and numerous microcontrollers and sensors.

Publications:

  • Nambu-Goldstone boson phenomenology in Domain-Wall Standard Model, Puja Das (Alabama U.), Nobuchika Okada (Alabama U.), Digesh Raut (St. Mary’s U., Halifax), Desmond Villalba (Mary Washington Coll.)e-Print: 2508.11346 [hep-ph]
  • Supersymmetric minimal U(1)X model at the TeV scale with right-handed Majorana neutrino dark matter, Nobuchika Okada (Alabama U.), Desmond Villalba (Mary Washington Coll.)
    e-Print: 2205.09572 [hep-ph],DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.108.095021 (publication), Published in: Phys.Rev.D 108 (2023) 9, 095021
  • Aspects of the Domain-Wall Standard Model, Nobuchika Okada (Alabama U.), Digesh Raut (Alabama U.), Desmond Villalba (Alabama U.), e-Print: 1801.03007 [hep-ph], DOI: 10.1093/ptep/ptad155, Published in: PTEP 2024 (2024) 2, 023B01

See all of publications.

Student Opportunities:

Professor Villalba has worked on several student projects throughout the semester during a URES 197 and Physics 491/492 independent research opportunities and during UMW’s Irene Piscopo Rodgers ’59 Summer Science Institute (SSI) on projects that include: understanding the dark matter relic abundance, studying wind flow with computational fluid dynamics, Newtonian gravity on a “flat Earth” and 3D printed solar distillation design to name a few.

Dr. V with student at SSI 25 Symposium.
Student presenting research at VAS 25.
Student at board working on research.

Screenshot 2025-07-29 at 2.36.40 PM

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