Speaker
Description
Direct and indirect detection of decaying dark matter models often rely on an assumption of the generation of a standard model particle in the chain of decay channels. This however leads to some ambiguity on the origin of the standard model particles as there is an overlap with processes within baryonic physics. If, however, the decay is assumed to take place wholly within the dark sector then the influence of this processes can be constrained by investigating modifications to the formation of large-scale structure and the underlying cosmology.
Perhaps the ideal cosmological structure to investigate the effect of dark matter decays are the cosmic voids as these are environments with minimal baryonic contamination. We have developed relativistic 1 + 3 hydrodynamical models of cosmic void evolution. By studying the gravitational lensing and Doppler magnification of cosmic voids it is possible to probe the presence and influence of decaying dark matter, and explore the possibility of future surveys to observe this. We present theoretical and numerical work on this area.
In my talk I will present published results as well as some new, unpublished results, which show that future lensing surveys such as Euclid or LSST should be able to constrain the parameter space and confirm or ruled or dark matter decay models with a half-life time on the order of 10 Gyr or shorter.
