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Public Seminar of RPg Student:
Searching for Dark Photon Dark Matter with LIGO

Speaker Mr. Fengwei YANG
Affiliation The University of Hong Kong
Date December 19, 2018 (Wednesday)
December 20, 2018 (Thursday)
Time 10:30 a.m.
Venue Rm 522, 5/F, Chong Yuet Ming Physics Building, HKU

Abstract
 

Traditionally, Dark Matter (DM) searches are dominantly focused on GeV – TeV mass window. However, though these experiments have reached unprecedented detection sensitivities, the successes only resulted in a push for stronger limits on parameters. This forces people to keep their minds open on other DM candidates, especially in different mass regime. If DM particle is an ultralight gauge boson, i.e. dark photon, DM should be considered as a background field. With certain assumptions on its coupling to Standard Model particles, this DM background field could exert forces on test masses in gravitational wave detectors, resulting in displacements with a characteristic frequency set by the gauge boson mass. In this talk, I will discuss a novel strategy to hunt for such DM. I will also give more details about DM background simulation. The preliminary results show that LIGO have the capability to make a 5σ discovery in unexplored parameter regimes.

Anyone interested is welcome to attend.