Phys Seminar

Title: The curious case of the 3.57 keV Emission Line: An X-ray Evidence of Dark Matter?

Speaker: Gül Esra Bülbül (Harvard University, Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)

Date/Time: February 9, 2015 Monday at 13:40

Place: Sabancı University, FENS G035

Abstract:
Galaxy clusters contain the largest concentrated reservoirs of dark matter, making them unique laboratories for the search for dark matter signatures. Despite intensive search, there is as yet no definitive detection of WIMP dark matter, viable alternative candidates ought to
be considered. Some of these - including the well-motivated keV sterile neutrino dark matter candidate - radiatively decay, emitting X-rays that may be detected in observations of large dark matter aggregations such as clusters of galaxies. We recently detected an unidentified emission line at 3.57 keV in the Chandra, XMM-Newton, and Suzaku observations of galaxy clusters. The lack of any atomic transitions at this energy in thermal plasma, hints that the line could be a signature of decaying sterile neutrinos. I will discuss the search for this line in the stacked observations of galaxy clusters and galaxies. I will provide an update on active searches for decayingsterile neutrinos in dark matter rich astrophysical systems.

Bio:
Dr. Esra Bulbul has moved to Alabama after receiving her BS and MS degree from METU in 2006. She received her PhD degree in physics from the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center and Univ. of Alabama in Huntsville in 2010. She was appointed as a Smithsonian Astrophysical Fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in 2010.

contact: Ersin Göğüş ersing@sabanciuniv.edu