The goal of particle physics is to categorize and mathematically describe the properties and interactions of particles. It turns out that there exist more particles than one might assume, and the story gets more complicated the further back you look in the universe’s history. Shortly after the universe began, what physicists call the Big Bang,…Continue Reading Rethinking Matter Formation in the Early Universe
Self-Interacting Dark Matter (SIDM) posits that dark matter particles interact with each other. In contrast, the Cold Dark Matter (CDM) paradigm states that dark matter particles do not experience collisions. SIDM was theorized to address problems on small scales, like the density profiles of dwarf galaxies being too dense in their cores with a CDM…Continue Reading Self-Interacting Dark Matter Solves the Diversity Problem in Galactic Rotation Curves
The age of gravitational astronomy has been ushered in with LIGO’s detection of three black hole merger events. The first signal came from a pair of black holes, around 30 solar masses each. The discovery was revolutionary as it provided the last piece of evidence confirming Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity. But it also had…Continue Reading The Milky Way is Teeming with Black Holes—Expect Mergers!