Nuclear, Particle, Astroparticle and Cosmology (NUPAC) Seminars
Fundamental physics with strong gravitational lenses
Presented by Daniel Gilman, University of Toronto
The properties of dark matter halos and subhalos on sub-galactic scales, below 10^9 solar masses, depend on the formation mechanism, mass, and possible interactions of the dark matter particle, as well as the initial conditions for structure formation determined by the primordial matter power spectrum and inflation. As such, inferences of the abundance and density profiles of low-mass halos can be recast as constraints on fundamental physics. Strong gravitational lensing by galaxies provides a direct, purely gravitational means of inferring the properties of low-mass halos. In particular, image magnifications in quadruple-image lenses (quads) can be used to infer the abundance and concentrations of dark matter structure down to roughly 10^7 solar masses. I will describe recent work that uses measurements of image magnifications in quads to infer properties of dark substructure in strong lens systems, including both subhalos around the main deflector's host dark matter halo, and structure distributed along the line of sight. I will then discuss what these inferences teach us about the nature of dark matter, and the primordial matter power spectrum.
2:00 pm, Tuesday, February 8, 2022
PAIS-3205, PAIS
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