11–13 May 2026
University of Pittsburgh
US/Eastern timezone

BBN constraints on the hadronic annihilation of sub-GeV dark matter

12 May 2026, 18:15
15m
David Lawrence Hall 120, University of Pittsburgh

David Lawrence Hall 120, University of Pittsburgh

Speaker

Afif Omar

Description

Residual annihilation of sub-GeV mass thermal relic dark matter candidates during big bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) can impact its predictions of light element abundances. Focusing on candidates with velocity-suppressed annihilation channels, I will discuss how the hadronic injection of pions and kaons beyond freeze-out, and their subsequent interaction with protons and neutrons prior to the deuterium bottleneck, provides a sensitivity to annihilation that surpasses that of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) and indirect detection in the galaxy.

Authors

Adam Ritz Afif Omar

Presentation materials

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