Speaker
Richard Massey
(Durham University)
Description
We combine ESA's Euclid mission and NASA's SuperBIT mission to test the hypothesis that dark matter particles interact with each other, through forces besides gravity. The hypothesis predicts that dark matter’s trajectory through collisions will deviate from the purely gravitational trajectories followed by stars. To test it, we have observed astrophysical versions of dark matter colliders like the Bullet cluster. We compare the location and amount of dark matter (gravitational lensing) with that of stars (optical imaging) and gas (X-ray imaging). Observations are interpreted and calibrated against cosmological simulations that include both beyond-standard model dark matter physics and hydrodynamical processes of galaxy formation.
Author
Richard Massey
(Durham University)