JAMES UNWIN - New Approaches to Dark Matter

James Unwin.

University of Illinois at Chicago.

Jueves 5/5/2016, 14 hs.

Aula Seminario, 2do piso, Pabellón I.

The presence of dark matter provides a striking indication that the Standard Model can not fully describe the physical Universe. I will first briefly outline the evidence for dark matter and the traditional picture of WIMP dark matter. Notably, this dark matter scenario can be effectively constrained via direct detection experiments and the LHC searches as I will discuss. Subsequently, I shall highlight some distinct alternatives to WIMPs for which these experimental limits are avoided or relaxed. Specifically, I will outline models of "Freeze-in", "Asymmetric Dark Matter", and "Flooded Dark Matter". These alternative scenarios give a very different picture of cosmology and have distinct signals and constraints compared to WIMP dark matter.