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[PAST EVENT] Physics Colloquium - Dr. Joshua Ruderman
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- Open to the public
Dr. Joshua Ruderman, New York University, Title of talk: Phases of Particle Dark Matter
Abstract: Dark matter is believed to make up most of the matter in our Universe, but its particle origin remains a mystery. A favorite candidate is the so-called Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP), but a diverse set of experiments are rapidly closing the available parameter space for WIMPs. I will show that small changes to the assumptions about how dark matter was produced in the early Universe lead to very different dark matter masses and interaction strengths. I will chart ``phase diagrams” for the production of dark matter with a thermal or non-thermal origin. I will explain how different phases of dark matter production map onto different experimental prospects.