Events at Physics |
Events on Friday, December 5th, 2008
- NPAC (Nuclear/Particle/Astro/Cosmo) Forum
- Joint NPAC/Pheno Seminar
- Shedding Light on Dark Matter: How Faraday Rotation Can Limit a Dark Magnetic Moment
- Time: 2:30 pm
- Place: 5280 Chamberlin
- Speaker: Susan Gardner, University of Kentucky
- Abstract: Disparate astronomical observations provide compelling evidence for additional, non-luminous matter, or dark matter, in gravitational interactions, but we know little of its nature. To remedy this, the hunt is on to detect dark matter via either direct or indirect means, to determine its mass(es?) as well as couplings to Standard Model particles. I will briefly review the astronomical evidence and summarize current direct and indirect detection efforts before describing a new possibility. That is, a Faraday rotation experiment can set limits on the magnetic moment of a electrically-neutral, dark-matter particle, and the limits increase in stringency as the candidate mass decreases. I shall describe how such could be realized and determine the limits on the magnetic moment as a function of mass which follow given demonstrated experimental capacities.
- Host: M J Ramsey-Musolf