Speaker
Leo Kim
(Queen's University)
Description
Dark compact objects can arise naturally in a variety of dark sectors. Clouds of dark matter between a source star and an observer could effectively act as a "lampshade" and dim starlight if the dark sector couples to the Standard Model photon. These dimming effects can be searched for in microlensing surveys, which measure the brightness of stars as a function of time. By considering the EROS-2 and OGLE surveys, we demonstrate how dimming effect searches could be complementary probes for extended structures of dark matter, and can be used to place constraints on dark sectors.
Author
Leo Kim
(Queen's University)
Co-authors
Joseph Bramante
(Queen's University)
Melissa Diamond
(Queen's University)