Probing Ultra-Light Dark Matter Wave Interference
Speaker
Date
Time
Place
Room 7W3 (Cosmology Hall)
Abstract
The nature of dark matter remains one of the biggest mysteries in cosmology. Among the many possible candidates, one of the most well-motivated class of models and leading candidate is the ultra-light dark matter. ULDM represents the lightest possible dark matter candidates and exhibits wave-like behavior on galactic scales, offering a unique opportunity to probe its properties through distinctive astrophysical signatures. In this talk, I will discuss the latest efforts to constrain the mass of ULDM, focusing on the fuzzy dark matter (FDM) model. I will show how we can use the different predictions of this model and different astrophysical systems to put the strongest bounds to date on the mass of this ultra-light axion, and possibly other quantities like the fraction, spin, and axion-photon coupling. I will focus more on the current developments in using interference patterns as a way to probe the FDM model, in particular, using gravitational lensing and pulsar timing data as a powerful probe to measure this wave behavior.
Biography
Prof. Elisa Ferreira is theoretical physicist at IPMU (Japan) whose research lies at the interface between cosmology, astrophysics, and high energy physics. Her work focuses mostly on studying the dark sector. She is particularly interested in dark matter, focusing on ultra-light dark matter. She has also worked on the late expansion of the universe, studying the phenomenology of dark energy.