Dark Matter in the Milky Way: its distribution, uncertainties, and effects on searches of physics beyond the standard model

by Prof. Fabio Iocco

Wednesday 19 Nov 2025, 16:00 → 17:00 Europe/Rome

0M04

The Milky Way crowns the night sky of both the Northern and Southern hemispheres with majestic splendor. While its beauty has inspired humanity for millennia, modern observations — especially over the past few decades — have enabled us to determine its stellar and dynamical mass with remarkable precision. The wealth of knowledge provided by recent technological advances is, however, affected by inherent uncertainties. These still partially limit our ability to probe physics beyond the Standard Model in this era of precision measurements.

I will review recent observations and analyses aimed at determining the mass of the Milky Way and the distribution of dark matter within it. I will also discuss how these determinations — and the uncertainties associated with them — impact the search for new physics in selected dark matter scenarios.