Particle and Astro-Particle Physics Seminars

Late-time cosmology and particle physics: from large cold simulations to fundamental particle properties

by Wessel Valkenburg (CERN)

Europe/Zurich
4/3-006 - TH Conference Room (CERN)

4/3-006 - TH Conference Room

CERN

110
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Description
Taking into account all existing laboratory experiments, everything we know (i.e. lower bounds on parameters) about Dark Matter comes from cosmology and astrophysics, from phenomena that manifest themselves on proper-distance scales varying from 10^3 to 10^5 lightyears. I will first introduce the relevant concepts of basic cosmology, aiming at accessibility for non-cosmologists. Next, I discuss the relation between general-relativistic perturbation theory and newtonian simulations, and why this is a topic at all. Then I will show how state-of-the-art simulations can shed light on Dark Matter properties, if they can. Finally, I conclude with pointing out how these state-of-the-art simulations are off by several percent. There may be some pretty pictures of cosmological simulations.