Michelson Postdoctoral Prize Lecture | Ben Lehmann (MIT, Department of Physics)

Date: Tue. April 14th, 2026, 11:30 am-12:30 am
Location: Rockefeller 221 (Foldy Room)

MPPL Lecture #2 (Tuesday, April 14, 11:30am-12:30pm, Rockefeller 221)

Compact Objects as Dark Matter: Endgame

Abstract: Compact objects as dark matter have historically been constrained by their dynamical effects. Since these objects can participate in hard few-body scattering processes, they can readily transfer energy to visible objects, with effects such as the disruption of wide binaries. However, binary disruption is not the only possible outcome of such few-body encounters. I will discuss recent work on dynamical capture, exchange, and perturbations to precision observables that open new avenues for compact object phenomenology across a wide range of masses. In particular, I will show how precision Solar System data offers the opportunity to detect primordial black holes in the asteroid-mass range, where compact objects can constitute all of the dark matter. Finally, across an even broader mass range, I will share a developing scheme for gravitational-wave probes of the dynamics of stable compact objects that are otherwise undetectable.

 

[BEN LEHMANN, PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Physics, Cambridge, Mass., has been named the winner of this year’s MICHELSON POSTDOCTORAL PRIZE, and will spend one week in residence during the week of April 13, 2026, on the Case Western Reserve University campus. This year marks the 27th annual MICHELSON POSTDOCTORAL PRIZE LECTURESHIP, awarded each year to a junior scholar active in any field of physics. As part of his residency, Dr. Lehmann will deliver two (2) technical lectures and a colloquium.  The lectureship also carries an award of $3,000 plus travel expenses.]