Shining (some) light on dark matter – Daniel Boyanovsky

Date: Thu. December 4th, 2008, 4:15 pm-5:15 pm
Location: Rockefeller 301

Most of the matter in the Universe is dark, and is supposed to be SOME particle that interacts very weakly with other particles and has not YET been found. I will summarize the observational evidence for dark matter and offer a pedagogical description of gravitational collapse, galaxy formation, and the microphysics of dark matter, describing the difference between cold, hot and warm dark matter candidates.

I will describe the results of large scale numerical simulations and observational discrepancies in satellite galaxies and how these provide constraints on the microphysics of dark matter. Finally I will mention some potential DM candidates (cold, hot and warm) and the direct and indirect searches for these candidates.