Details on the event

01/09/2018

Astrophysics Talk

Constraining the nature of dark matter and modified gravity in galaxy clusters

Dominque Eckert (University of Geneva)

Tuesday 29/03/2022 @ 14:00, Remote talk

The origin of dark matter still constitutes one of the most fundamental questions in modern physics. Precise observations of the gravitational field of cosmic structures can provide important clues on the properties of the putative dark matter particle, such as its mass and self-interaction cross section. Alternatively, the observed gravitational field can be used to constrain any modification of general relativity in the weak-field limit. As the largest gravitationally bound structures in the Universe, galaxy clusters are privileged sites to study the gravitational field of cosmic structures and probe the nature of dark matter. In this talk, I will present high-quality reconstructions of the gravitational field of galaxy clusters through joint X-ray and Sunyaev-Zeldovich observations. The resulting mass profiles will then be used to test the predictions of the cold dark matter paradigm, set constraints on the dark matter self-interaction cross section, and test modified gravity theories.