Prof.
Jens
Niemeyer
Institute for Astrophysics and Geophysics, Georg-August-University Göttingen, Germany
Cosmological observations on scales from galaxies to the cosmic microwave background indicate that most of the matter in the Universe is cold, dark, and non-baryonic. While searches for new massive particles have so far come up empty, QCD and string theory provide strong motivations for the existence of very light, weakly coupled, bosonic dark matter candidates: axions and axion-like particles (ALPs). As the de Broglie wavelength of these particles may reach galactic scales, structure formation with ALP dark matter predicts very distinctive signatures. Lower bounds on the particle mass have been obtained from different regimes of "waviness" involving diverse systematics. I will present an overview of the progress and challenges of exploring the low-mass frontier of the universe.
This is a hybrid event:
Room D, the Institute of Physics PAS, Al. Lotników 32/46
Online: Zoom Link, (Passcode: 134595, Meeting ID: 823 8038 0442)
