Résumé / Abstract Seminaire_IAP
« Dark matter in the light of cosmic rays »

Pierre Salati
Laboratoire d'Annecy-Le-Vieux de Physique Théorique (Annecy-Le-Vieux, France)

Although its presence in the universe is by now well established, the nature of the enigmatic dark matter is still to be unraveled. Elementary species produced during the Big Bang are among the favored candidates. Should these pervade the Galactic halo, they would yield antimatter particles — positrons and antiprotons — which would distort the backgrounds detected at the Earth. The study of cosmic rays has definitely a bearing upon the search for dark matter candidates. After a brief recap of the interplay between these two fields, I will review how they have nurtured each other over the past decade. The discovery of a high-energy positron anomaly for instance has stimulated model builders and led to a more refined description of lepton transport in the Milky Way. The new detectors have also reached an unprecedented accuracy and start to challenge our comprehension of cosmic rays. Is there an excess in the antiproton spectrum ? What are the prospects for detecting anti-nuclei ? Does the discreteness of the sources play any role ? The last part of my talk will be devoted to some of the problems ahead of us.
vendredi 27 avril 2018 - 11:00
Amphithéâtre Henri Mineur, Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris
Page web du séminaire / Seminar's webpage