Joint cosmology seminar at MIT:

Tuesday, December 5, 2017, 2:30 pm
Cosman Seminar Room
Center for Theoretical Physics
Building 6C, Room 6C-442
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Refreshments at 2:00 in the same room

Making a Universe with (Rel)axions

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
U. Washington, Seattle

Abstract:

The discovery of the Higgs boson reinforces the possibility that other similar, scalar particles may exist in nature. In this talk, I will begin by discussing one such dark matter and sometime inflaton candidate, the axion. I will discuss the claim that dark matter axions form an exotic state of matter called a Bose-Einstein condensate and my work on this exciting prospect. I will also discuss other interesting uses of the axion, including my work on the interesting relaxion idea and possible phenomenologies of cosmological and thermal relaxions that could be observable with the proposed NASA STROBE-X experiment.