Physics & Astronomy Colloquium - Prof. Douglas Finkbeiner, Harvard

Title: "The Search for WIMP Dark Matter: New Approaches to Stubborn Problems"

September 29, 2017
3:30 pm - 4:30 pm
Location
Wilder 104
Sponsored by
Physics & Astronomy Department
Audience
Public
More information
Tressena Manning
603-646-2854

Abstract:  The search for weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) dark matter is now a few decades old, and we have impressive limits, but no discovery. WIMPs could show themselves in the sky, deep underground, and at particle colliders. Heroic efforts have been made in all three areas, and we now know a great deal about what dark matter is NOT.  I will discuss a major obstacles to discovering WIMP signals in the gamma-ray sky -- the diffuse Galactic gamma-ray emission -- and how we can make progress in that area.  I will also introduce the subhalo lensing problem, and describe a new approach -- transdimensional inference -- that could revolutionize efforts in that area. 

Location
Wilder 104
Sponsored by
Physics & Astronomy Department
Audience
Public
More information
Tressena Manning
603-646-2854