Speaker
Description
I will introduce the effects of dark matter capture in Sun-like stars, as they pass through the distribution of dark matter known to fill the Milky Way. I will focus on the effects of heat conduction by weakly interacting particles such as asymmetric dark matter: specifically, a reduction of central temperature and thus a significant change in the solar neutrino fluxes, as well as changes in the radius-dependent sound speed, reflected in high-precision helioseismology measurements. Such effects may help solve the solar abundance problem, a > 6-sigma discrepancy between the predicted and observed structure of the Sun in the Standard Solar Model, which has confounded solar physicists for over a decade. I will briefly discuss other effects of dark matter on stars, as well as complementary probes from laboratory experiments.
