Gravitational probes of dark matter

by Justin Read (University of Surrey)

Wednesday 10 Jul 2019, 14:00 → 16:00 Europe/Zurich

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

Dark matter makes up most of the mass of the Universe but remains mysterious. I discuss recent progress in constraining its properties by measuring its distribution in the Universe from tiny dwarf galaxies to giant galaxy clusters. I show that the latest results favour a cold, collisionless particle that lies beyond the standard model of particle physics. However, for a long time this model has been in tension with the abundance and internal dark matter distribution of nearby dwarf galaxies, tensions that have become known as the "cusp-core", "missing satellites" and "too big to fail" problems. I present the first observational evidence that the cusp-core problem owes to baryonic feedback "heating up" dark matter during galaxy formation, and I show that this naturally solves both the missing satellites and "too big to fail" problems too. This provides further evidence that dark matter is, to a good approximation, a cold, collisionless fluid that can be heated up and moved around. I conclude with a discussion of the latest constraints on self-interacting and warm dark matter models.