IAS Fundamental Physics Seminar Series - Warmth, Randomness and Spin in Dark Matter Fields

Abstract
What can we learn about the mass and intrinsic spin of dark matter particles from cosmological and astrophysical observations? The speaker will discuss how spin can determine the lightest mass dark matter particles can have. When dark matter is a sufficiently light boson, it becomes wavelike — the speaker will show that in this case its mass and intrinsic spin angular momentum can impact the (i) variation of dark matter density inside halos, (ii) lead to formation of solitons with macroscopic intrinsic spin, and (iii) lead to early formation of structure. Time permitting, he might briefly discuss direct detection prospects for such dark matter, and novel connections to "spinor” Bose-Einstein Condensates in the laboratory.