| Unveiling the nature of dark matter with small-scale cosmic structure |
| Risa Wechsler, Stanford University |
| Event Type: Astro Seminar |
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| Time: 2:00 PM - 3:15 PM |
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| Location: 726 Broadway, 940, CCPP Seminar |
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| Abstract: Cosmological and astrophysical measurements provide clear evidence for the existence of dark matter, and in recent years they have started to map dark matter over large volumes of the cosmos -- but we still do not know the mass or interaction properties of the dark matter particle(s?).
I will describe how measurements of small-scale cosmic structure -- including dwarf galaxies, gravitational lenses, and the properties of stellar streams -- are already providing insight into the microphysical properties of dark matter. Large photometric and spectroscopic surveys coming online in the near future will accelerate this search in a way that is complementary to other dark matter probes, and have the potential to detect truly dark halos below the limit of galaxy formation and confirm or rule out a key prediction of our standard cosmological model. Link to the Event Video |