Joint cosmology seminar at MIT:

Tuesday, October 22, 2013, 2:45 pm
Cosman Seminar Room
Center for Theoretical Physics
Building 6C, Room 6C-442
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Refreshments at 2:30 in the same room

Dark Matter Annihilation and the Cosmic Microwave Background

Tracy Slatyer
MIT

Abstract:

With the upcoming release of Planck polarization data and measurements of high multipoles by ACT and SPT, the cosmic microwave background provides a clean and robust probe of annihilating dark matter in the early universe. I will discuss the physical mechanisms by which dark matter annihilation is expected to impact the cosmic microwave background radiation, outline recent improvements to the calculation of the expected signal, and present the latest bounds using power spectrum measurements from Planck, WMAP9, ACT and SPT, together with low-redshift datasets.