Dark sector models naturally introduce elastic and dissipative self-interactions of dark matter. The heat exchange induced by the elastic scattering permits the gravothermal evolution of the halo. Through the evolution, the inner halo firstly develops a core but ultimately becomes cuspy. Based on a semi-analytic fluid model calibrated with N-body simulations, we find that a mild dissipative scattering can significantly … Read More
The relaxion idea is a new mechanism proposed to naturally generate a small electroweak scale. It relies on the scanning of the Higgs mass parameter by a new field, the relaxion, and a back-reaction mechanism that is triggered when the Higgs vacuum expectation value has reached the size of the electroweak scale, making the relaxion evolution stop. In this talk, … Read More
I will present and compare several cosmological constraints on the cross section for scattering between dark matter (DM) and baryons, for cross sections with non-trivial dependence on the redshift or relative velocity. I will demonstrate a general framework for estimating the cosmic-microwave-background constraints on general scattering histories, and discuss the implications of these constraints for observations of the redshifted 21cm … Read More
Quantum field theory lies at the heart of both condensed-matter and high energy physics. In some parameter regimes, such as strong coupling, extracting quantitative predictions from quantum field theories, particularly regarding dynamical quantities such as scattering probabilities, appears to be intractable using conventional techniques. Here I will discuss new advances in quantum algorithms for simulating quantum field theories which achieve … Read More
Abstract: Using two realizations of the Milky Way from the FIRE simulation, we find that the kinematics of dark matter follows closely the kinematics of accreted stars from the same mergers. We use this correspondence to obtain an empirical measurement of the local velocity distribution of dark matter by analyzing the Gaia second data release coupled with the ninth release … Read More
The MiniBooNE experiment has recently reported an anomalous 4.5 \sigma excess of electron-like events consistent with \nu_e appearance from a \nu_\mu beam at short-baseline. Given the lack of corresponding \nu_\mu disappearance observations, required in the case of oscillations involving a sterile flavor, there is strong motivation for alternative explanations of this anomaly. We consider the possibility that the observed electron-like … Read More
Abstract: In this talk, I will discuss a theoretical proposal for a new class of detectors for dark photon and axion dark matter at frequencies from the infrared through the ultraviolet based on dielectric haloscopes and high precision and efficiency single photon detectors, as well as some recent experimental progress. A well-motivated class of dark matter candidates including axions and … Read More
Abstract: Studying nature directly from fundamental degrees of freedom is often computationally limited by nature’s physical characteristics of exponentially growing Hilbert spaces with particle number and sign/signal-to-noise problems. As a result, Minkowski-space dynamics and fermionic many-body structure calculations require exponentially-large classical computing resources to provide results with necessary precision. This leaves many systems of interest to nuclear and particle physics … Read More