Physics colloquium: Cosmology and New Physics

The Department of Physics will present a colloquium with Associate Professor Scott Watson.

LIGO has detected several gravity wave signals from black holes with masses around 30 times the mass of the sun. Whereas, direct and indirect dark matter detection experiments have so far failed to detect any sign of dark matter particles. In this talk, we will explore whether the primordial formation of black holes — with properties like those detected by LIGO — could be part or all of the cosmological dark matter. It turns out the prediction of such black holes could be intimately connected to addressing the puzzle of a quantum theory of gravity and the end of cosmological inflation.  That is, string theory may predict exactly such a dark matter candidate.

NOTE: This a hybrid event. Please contact phyadmin@syr.edu for the zoom link.