Phenomenology 2017 Symposium

Session

DM IV

23

9 May 2017, 16:30

G-30 (Benedum Hall)

338. Detecting Dark Matter via Kinetic Heating of Neutron Stars

Nirmal Raj (Notre Dame)

09/05/2017, 16:30

parallel talk

A largely model-independent probe of dark matter-nucleon interactions is proposed. Accelerated by gravity to relativistic speeds, local dark matter scattering against old neutron stars deposits kinetic energy that heats them to infrared blackbody temperatures. The resulting radiation could be detected by next generation telescopes such as James Webb, the Thirty Meter Telescope and the European...

287. Detecting compact dark matter with fast radio bursts

Julian Munoz (Johns Hopkins University)

09/05/2017, 16:45

parallel talk

A significant part of dark matter could be made of compact objects, such as primordial black holes. In this talk I will discuss how to use Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) to directly test this hypothesis. FRBs are powerful and short radio emissions emanating from extragalactic sources. A compact component of the dark matter can act as a gravitational lens and create multiple images of a single FRB....

272. Implications of neutrino backgrounds for the direct detection of sub-GeV DM-electron scattering

Mukul Sholapurkar (Stony Brook University)

09/05/2017, 17:00

parallel talk

The direct detection of sub-GeV dark matter (DM) has received increased interest in the last few years. Recent proposals for experimental ideas using DM-electron scattering have opened up previously unexplored, but theoretically well-motivated, regions of parameter space. As these experiments increase their cross-section reach, they will start to become sensitive to astrophysical neutrinos....

372. An Overview of Neutrino Floor Analysis and Application in the Search for Dark Matter and Coherent Scattering

Mr Derek Johnson (Sam Houston State University)

09/05/2017, 17:15

parallel talk

We discuss the early stages of the MINER coherent neutrino scattering reactor experiment at Texas A&M University. We examine the solar neutrino background both as motivation for the development of new ultra-low threshold detectors to observe coherent scattering and for establishing a baseline event rate to assist in ongoing searches for dark matter. The latter allows for predictive...

392. Testing Light Dark Matter Coannihilation With Fixed-Target Experiments

Matthew Moschella (Princeton University)

09/05/2017, 17:30

parallel talk

In this talk, I will discuss a novel program of fixed-target searches for thermal-origin Dark Matter (DM), which couples inelastically to the Standard Model. Since the DM only interacts by transitioning to a heavier state, freeze-out proceeds via coannihilation and the unstable heavier state is depleted at later times. For sufficiently large mass splittings, direct detection is kinematically...

345. Boosted Dark Matter at the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment

Haider Alhazmi, Haider Alhazmi

09/05/2017, 17:45

parallel talk

We investigate the detection prospects of a non-standard dark sector in the context of boosted dark matter. We consider a scenario where two stable particles have a large mass difference and the heavier particle accounts for most of dark matter in our current universe. The heavier candidate is assumed to have no interaction with the standard model particles at tree-level, hence evading...

276. The influence of dark energy on the expansion rate of the universe and its effects on dark matter relic abundance

Esteban Jimenez (Texas A&M University)

09/05/2017, 18:00

parallel talk

The expansion rate of the universe had a strong influence on the origin of the dark matter abundance during the early stages of the universe's evolution, mainly prior to big-bang nucleosynthesis. Any departure of the expansion rate of the universe from the standard cosmological model during that time can modify the dark matter abundance. In this talk, I will explore the role played by a scalar...

231. The Vev Flip-Flop: Dark Matter Decay between Weak Scale Phase Transitions

Michael Baker (JGU Mainz)

09/05/2017, 18:15

parallel talk

We discuss a new alternative to the Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP) paradigm for dark matter. Rather than being determined by thermal freeze-out, the dark matter abundance in this scenario is set by dark matter decay, which is allowed for a limited amount of time just before the electroweak phase transition. More specifically, we consider fermionic singlet dark matter particles...