High Energy Seminar

Charged Cosmic Rays and Dark Matter 

Dr. Dan Hooper
Fermilab

Tuesday, September 8, 2009    4:00 p.m. NSH 415

 

Recent results from the PAMELA, FERMI, and ATIC experiments have lead us to the conclusion that highly relativistic (10-600 GeV) electrons and positrons are surprisingly ubiquitous in cosmic ray spectrum. Although the source of these unexpected particles is currently not known, an exciting possibility is that they might be the product of dark matter particles annihilating in the local halo of the Milky Way. I will discuss what it would take for dark matter to produce these signals, and the future measurements that will enable us to identify the origin of these particles once and for all.