News & Events

Jessie Shelton (Illinois) – Dark Matter In and Out of Equilibrium

Event Details

McDonald Institute Seminar Series

Location: Rm 501 Stirling Hall, Queen's University, Kingston ON

Date: October 18, 2018

Time: 2:30pm - 3:30pm

Dark Matter In and Out of Equilibrium

One generic scenario for the dark matter of our universe is that it resides in a hidden sector: it talks to other dark fields more strongly than it talks to the Standard Model. I’ll discuss some simple, WIMP-y models of this kind of hidden sector dark matter, paying particular attention to the cosmic history of the dark sector. In particular, the need to populate the dark sector in the early universe can control observability today. Results include new cosmological lower bounds on direct detection cross-sections and some models of dark matter with parametrically novel behavior.