COLÓQUIO DO DEPARTAMENTO DE FÍSICA MATEMÁTICA
"The moment of truth for neutralino Dark Matter?"
Dra. Maria Eugenia Cabrera (IFUSP)
19 de maio, terça-feira, Sala Jayme Tiomno, às 11h
Abstract: Gravitational effects from astronomical observations, such as anomalous rotation curves of galaxies and gravitational lensing, suggest the existence of non-luminous Matter (Dark Matter) which is also necessary to explain the large scale structure formation of the Universe. To identify the nature of Dark Matter and its possible connection with physics beyond the Standard Model is one of the most interesting open problems in high energy physics. Amongst the many Dark Matter candidates proposed, weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) are the most studied because one can naturally obtain the correct relic density for weak scale interaction and masses. In particular the neutralino, one of the favorite Dark Matter candidates in Supersymmetric scenarios, has become over the years a prototypical example of WIMPs. In this colloquium I will summarize the status of the neutralino as Dark Matter candidate in the framework of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model, and comment !
on the possibility to test this hypothesis with current and next generation experiments.
