Searching for the invisible: how dark forces shape our Universe
Aug 29, 2019Citations per year
0 Citations
Abstract:
Astrophysical observations on a wide range of scales indicate that the majority of matter in ourUniverse seems to be approximately inert and non-luminous. The existence of this dark matterimplies the existence of an undiscovered particle, since there is no viable dark matter candidatewithin the Standard Model. Many terrestrial searches for dark matter particles are underway; how-ever, there is no evidence to date that the dark matter interacts with particles in the Standard Modelexcept through gravity. It highly conceivable that the dark matter exists as part of a rich hiddensector with diverse matter content and its own dark forces (in analogy to the Standard Model)which would imply that terrestrial searches may not pose an optimal path to discovering dark mat-ter. Instead, observing astrophysical systems — where dark matter is known to be present throughits gravitational influence — would be the best available way to test theories of dark matter wheredark forces play a role in altering the properties of those systems. The complementarity of ob-serving various astrophysical systems is a powerful asset for exploring the physics of dark sectors:one can explore broad classes of theories with dark forces in different environments, on differentlength scales, and at different epochs in the history of our Universe. This dissertation exploresseveral scenarios where astrophysical observations inform our understanding of dark forces in away that would not necessarily be possible on Earth. In particular, we consider dark sector energydissipation, dark matter self-interaction, and the early Universe production of dark matter throughdark channels. We propagate the implications of these effects for stars, supernovae, the Milky Waystellar disk, dwarf galaxies, galaxy clusters, large-scale structure, the epoch of reionization, andthe cosmic microwave background.- astroparticle physics
- astrophysics
- cosmology
- dark matter
- dark matter: interaction
- dark matter: production
- galaxy: cluster
- gravitation
- cosmic background radiation: power spectrum
- ionization
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