Conveners
Session 11: Dark Sector
- Risa Wechsler
Dwarf galaxies are essential probes of dark matter (DM) microphysics. Here, we assess potential DM constraints from future dwarf galaxy surveys. We find that observations of all satellites around one (two) Milky Way-mass host can rule out warm DM models with $m_{\mathrm{WDM}}=10~\mathrm{keV}$ ($20~\mathrm{keV}$). We show that the same data constrain the subhalo mass function in a...
Axion-like dark matter whose symmetry breaking occurs after the end of inflation predicts enhanced primordial density fluctuations at small scales. This leads to dense axion minihalos (or miniclusters) forming early in the history of the Universe.
Condensation of axions in the minihalos leads to the formation and subsequent growth of axion stars at the cores of these halos. If, like the...
The precision of present-day cosmological measurements has enabled exploration into the characteristics of dark matter and other particles within the dark sector. As measurement precision improves, discrepancies among various datasets have emerged, suggesting a necessity to move beyond the standard $\Lambda$CDM model. Extensions of $\Lambda$CDM that incorporate interactions within the dark...
I will discuss anisotropic (patchy) screening induced by the resonant conversion of cosmic microwave background (CMB) photons into light bosons in the dark sector as they cross non-linear large scale structure (LSS). Using kinetically mixed dark photon as an example, I will show how this conversion between CMB photon and light bosons leads to new CMB anisotropies that are correlated with LSS....
