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The Cosmology of Dark Energy Radiation – Kim Berghaus (Stony Brook)

Event Details

McDonald Institute Seminar Series

Location: STI 501, and Zoom

Date: March 9, 2023

Time: 2:30pm - 3:30pm

Title: The Cosmology of Dark Energy Radiation

If dark energy evolves in time its dynamical component could be dominated by a bath of dark radiation. Since dark energy was subdominant in the early universe, the dark energy radiation evades the usual stringent constraints on extra relativistic species from the cosmic microwave background, allowing for an O(1) fraction of the energy density today to be dark radiation. In this talk, I will discuss how dark energy radiation can emerge from a fundamental theory, its predictions for cosmological observables, as well as discovery potential and constraints with existing and future precision cosmological datasets including measurements of the cosmic microwave background, baryon acoustic oscillations, and supernova data. I’ll conclude with the prospects of measuring the particle content of the dark energy radiation in direct-detection experiments in the presence of interactions between the Standard Model and the dark radiation sector, focusing on neutrinos, axions and dark photons.

 

This McDonald Institute seminar will be held in Stirling 501, and on Zoom. Please contact Aaron Vincent aaron.vincent@queensu.ca to be added to the Queen’s astroparticle listserv, through which the zoom link will be posted.