Nuclear, Particle, Astroparticle and Cosmology (NUPAC) Seminars
WIMP Miracle: in Principle and in Practice
Presented by Rouzbeh Allahverdi (UNM)
Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) are promising candidates for dark matter in the universe. An attractive feature of WIMPs, dubbed "WIMP miracle", is that thermal freeze-out of their annihilation in the early universe may yield a relic density in the ballpark of the value inferred from cosmological observations.
I start this talk by a brief review of WIMP miracle as a general idea and in the context of specific models. Then I discuss theoretical assumptions and experimental challenges of this scenario. I argue that this motivates serious consideration of alternative mechanisms for producing dark matter relic abundance. I present one such scenario, called "Non-thermal dark matter", that arises when the universe has a non-standard thermal history.
2:00 pm, Tuesday, September 17, 2013
PAIS-2540, PAIS
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