Special Physics Seminar

The Particle Physics of Cosmic Relics and the Search for Dark Matter

Tongyan Lin

University of Berkeley & LBNL

In recent decades, the discovery of cosmic relics from the big bang has given an unprecedented window into high energy particle physics and the early universe. The observed cosmic relics include the cosmic microwave background radiation, relic neutrinos, and dark matter. Dark matter is the most massive of these, yet we still do not know what it is. I will describe candidate theories for dark matter, current efforts to test those theories, and how experiments searching for dark matter may lead to new discoveries in particle physics and cosmology.