Physics & Engineering Physics Lecture

Yacine Ali-Haimoud, Ph.D., assistant professor, Department of Physics, New York University, will present, “Hunting for Dark Matter in the Early Universe.”

It is now well-established that a large part of the matter in the universe is some substance that appears to be oblivious to any force but gravity. The nature of this “dark matter” remains a mystery—and is one of the most important questions in modern physics. Could it be a new particle, as light as an electron, or might it be made of black holes as massive as many suns?

In this talk, Ali-Haimoud will start by giving a brief overview of modern cosmology, focusing on the cosmic microwave background (CMB). He will then explain how cosmologists can be so sure about the presence and amount of dark matter, and illustrate how precise measurements of the frequency spectrum and angular fluctuations of the CMB can help shed light on the nature and properties of dark matter. Ali-Haimoud will discuss CMB tests of feeble dark matter interactions with photons, electrons, and nuclei, as well as the signatures of accreting primordial black holes as a potential dark matter candidate.