Could dark matter be axions? Observational results and prospects.

Renee Hlozek
University of Toronto

Abstract

Ultra-light axions are a promising dark matter candidate well motivated by high energy physics. While detection experiments hold great promise for axion detection, cosmological observations are a window into the dark sector that is not probed by detector experiments.  I will present a range of constraints on axions, including some from small-scale measurements of the CMB, measurements of clustering like the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) and the Dark Energy Survey (DES), and high-redshift measurements of the UV luminosity function as probed by HST and JWST. I'll also describe the new world that will be ushered in by the Simons Observatory (SO), a new experiment currently being built on Cerro Toco in Chile.

Timbits, coffee, tea will be served in STI A before the colloquium.