Speaker
Dr
Julian Munoz
(Harvard University)
Description
The nature of the dark matter is still a mystery, although current and upcoming 21-cm measurements during the cosmic dawn can provide a new arena on the search for the cosmological dark matter. This era saw the formation of the first stars, which coupled the spin temperature of hydrogen to its kinetic temperature---producing 21-cm absorption in the CMB. The strength of this absorption acts as a thermostat, showing us if the baryons have been cooled down or heated up by different processes. In particular, during the cosmic dawn, the baryon-dark matter fluid is the slowest it will ever be, making it ideal to search for dark matter elastically scattering with baryons through massless mediators, such as the photon. I will describe how dark-matter particles with an electric “minicharge” can significantly alter the baryonic temperature, and thus explain the anomalous 21-cm depth observed by the EDGES collaboration.
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Primary author
Dr
Julian Munoz
(Harvard University)
Co-authors
Prof.
Abraham Loeb
(Harvard)
Prof.
Cora Dvorkin
(Harvard)
