Topic: dark matter

Physicist Daniel Akerib joins Sean Carroll to examine the search for weakly interacting massive particles and the challenges of directly detecting dark matter. They discuss a single unusual event in recent LUX-ZEPLIN data and why its low statistical significance warrants interest rather than a discovery claim. The conversation connects this result with Akerib’s experience in the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search, LUX and LUX-ZEPLIN experiments.

Astrophysicist Benoît Famaey and theoretical physicist Francesca Calore discuss the evidence motivating dark matter and the challenges of identifying its nature. With Alexandra Delbot, they examine proposed particle candidates, possible detection signals and why a promising observation requires careful scrutiny before being treated as a discovery.

Elena Pinetti explores astrophysical searches for dark matter across a wide range of masses and interactions. Observations complement laboratory searches for particles such as axions and weakly interacting massive particles. The talk develops strategies that turn observatories into probes of fundamental physics, including infrared observations with JWST for axions and radio studies of cosmic filaments for WIMP scenarios.

Jostein Riiser Kristiansen discusses the observational evidence for dark matter and dark energy and the questions they leave unresolved. Conversation in Norwegian.