skip to main content

Astronomy Colloquium

Wednesday, October 6, 2021
4:00pm to 5:00pm
Add to Cal
Online and In-Person Event
Astrophysical Probes of the Microphysical Nature of the Dark Matter
Kathryn Zurek, Professor of Theoretical Physics, Department of Physics, Math and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology,

In-person attendance is limited to Caltech community members only (with a 74 person capacity limit in Hameetman Auditorium).

On large scales in the Universe, the Cold Dark Matter paradigm, where scale-invariant density perturbations are seeded during inflation, has been spectacularly successful. On smaller scales, we expect the particle nature of dark matter to imprint unique fingerprints of its microphysical nature. We discuss how astrophysical observations on sub-galactic scales, such as pulsar timing arrays, can probe theories of dark matter and dark sectors beyond the Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP). We connect these astrophysical probes to new laboratory direct detection experiments to search for dark sectors.

To view this talk via YouTube, please visit: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-zYBv_IqFp2f9huYQA1VSw

For more information, please contact Jim Fuller by email at [email protected] or visit http://www.astro.caltech.edu/.