High Energy Phenomenology Seminar: Helvi Witek (UIUC) "Black holes as cosmic particle detectors"
Speaker: |
(sign-up)
Helvi Witek (UIUC) |
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Date: | 3/6/2020 |
Time: | 12 p.m. |
Location: | 464 Loomis |
Event Contact: | Brandy Shier BSHIER@ILLINOIS.EDU |
Sponsor: | Department of Physics |
Event Type: | Seminar/Symposium |
The nature of dark matter is a long-standing open question in modern physics. Excitingly, black holes offer novel pathways to probe for ultra-light dark matter candidates by virtue of the superradiant instability. This classical phenomenon leads to the formation of a "gravitational atom'', i.e., long-lived condensates of ultra-light bosonic fields around astrophysical black holes. In this talk, I will give an overview on black-hole superradiance, present the superradiant evolution of these gravitational atoms and discuss observational implications that will enable us to search for -- or place novel constraints on -- these dark matter candidates. |