Nuclear, Particle, Astroparticle and Cosmology (NUPAC) Seminars
Measuring 2.4 x 10^26Hz photons and why we do it!
Presented by John Matthews, UNM
Using the virial theorem to analyze the Coma galaxy cluster in 1933, Fritz Zwicky inferred the existence of Dark Matter, DM. During the 1970s, Vera Rubin obtained strong (compelling) evidence for the existence of DM. Yet today DM is still observed only "from space" and details are still largely unknown ... sort of embarrassing! The possible annihilation of dark matter, and the emission of super-massive black holes (AGNs), to very-high-energy photons motivated our development of an instrument to measure ~1TeV (2.4 x 10^26Hz) photons: the High Altitude Water Cerenkov (HAWC) experiment. I will provide a little background information on DM and AGNs in astrophysics, then review how we "measure" 1TeV photons with some details on the instrumental and analysis challenges, and finally give a brief status report on our search for DM and on the variability in the emissions from AGNs.
11:00 am, Thursday, April 7, 2016
PAIS-2540, PAIS
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