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High Energy Phenomenology Seminar: Helvi Witek (UIUC) "Black holes as cosmic particle detectors"

Speaker: Helvi Witek (UIUC)
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.