Cosmological Probes of Higher Spin Fields

by Dr Leah Jenks

Thursday 9 Mar 2023, 11:00 → 13:00 Australia/Sydney

Higher spin (s > 2) particles appear in many areas of physics, but have generally been unexplored in the context of cosmology. In this talk, I will highlight recent work studying higher spins in several cosmological scenarios. I will first discuss the ‘cosmological collider’ framework and show how higher spin interactions during inflation can leave distinctive signatures on the non-gaussianity of the cosmic microwave background. I will then discuss higher spin particles as a dark matter candidate and show distinctive signatures that could arise in directional direct detection experiments.