Black holes as search engines for axion dark matter and hidden photons

by Helvi Witek (University of Barcelona)

Wednesday 14 Jun 2017, 16:00 → 17:30 Europe/Rome

Aula Conversi (Dip. di Fisica - Edificio G. Marconi)

Observations of galaxy clusters, their rotation curves or gravitational lensing indicate the existence of dark matter. Although a precise understanding of its constituents and properties has remained elusive, axion-like particles are among the most promising dark matter candidates. Recently, it has been realized that black holes can be employed to shed light on the dark matter quest through a phenomenon known as superradiance. In this talk I will give a review on black hole superradiance, how it can be used to investigate light fundamental fields, and I will present new results exploring their non-linear interaction.