Speaker
Leo Kim
(Queen's University)
Description
Dark substructures and compact objects composed entirely of dark matter can hold crucial information regarding the particle nature of dark matter as well as the astrophysical and cosmological processes involved in their formation. We show that if the dark sector couples to the Standard Model photon, then clumps of dark matter between a source star and an observer on Earth could effectively act as "lampshades" and dim starlight. These dimming effects can be searched for in observational surveys which observe the brightness of stars as a function of time, such as microlensing surveys. By considering the EROS-2 and OGLE surveys, we demonstrate how dimming effects could be complementary probes for extended structures of dark matter.
Primary author
Leo Kim
(Queen's University)
Co-authors
Joseph Bramante
(Queen's University)
Melissa Diamond
(Queen's University)
