High Energy Phenomenology Seminar: Soubhik Kumar (Berkeley) "Cosmological Particle Production and Pairwise Hotspots on the CMB"
Speaker: |
(sign-up)
Soubhik Kumar (Berkeley) |
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Date: | 10/8/2021 |
Time: | 12 p.m. |
Location: | Via ZOOM |
Event Contact: | Brandy Koebbe BKOEBBE@ILLINOIS.EDU |
Sponsor: | Department of Physics |
Event Type: | Seminar/Symposium |
I will describe a scenario in which heavy particles are produced during inflation via their couplings to the inflaton. Following their production, these heavy particles propagate classically and can give rise to localized hotspots on the CMB. Momentum conservation during particle production dictates that these localized spots come in pairs. I will discuss the properties of such pairwise hotspots and the prospects of their detection in the presence of the thermal fluctuations of the CMB itself. |