PIRSA:19110046

Searching for new physics with the 21-cm line

Muñoz Bermejo, J. (2019). Searching for new physics with the 21-cm line . Perimeter Institute. https://pirsa.org/19110046

Muñoz Bermejo, Julian. Searching for new physics with the 21-cm line . Perimeter Institute, Nov. 22, 2019, https://pirsa.org/19110046 

          @misc{ pirsa_PIRSA:19110046,
            doi = {10.48660/19110046},
            url = {https://pirsa.org/19110046},
            author = {Mu{\~n}oz Bermejo, Julian},
            keywords = {Particle Physics},
            language = {en},
            title = {Searching for new physics with the 21-cm line },
            publisher = {Perimeter Institute},
            year = {2019},
            month = {nov},
            note = {PIRSA:19110046 see, \url{https://pirsa.org}}
          }

Julian Muñoz Bermejo Harvard University

DOI 10.48660/19110046
Collection
Talk Type Scientific Series
Subject

Abstract

I will describe how current and upcoming 21-cm measurements during cosmic dawn can probe a plethora of dark-matter and dark-energy models. This era saw the formation of the first stars, which coupled the spin temperature of hydrogen to its kinetic temperature---producing 21-cm absorption. The depth of this absorption acts as a thermostat, allowing us to constrain exotic cooling or heating due to dark matter. Additionally, the timing of the 21-cm signal strongly depends on the abundance of the small minihalos that hosted the first stars, allowing us to tightly constrain dark-matter models with suppressed power, such as warm or fuzzy dark matter. Finally, I will describe how in LCDM the acoustic physics of recombination are imprinted onto the 21-cm power spectrum during cosmic dawn, resulting in robust velocity-induced acoustic oscillations (VAOs). These act as a new standard ruler at z~20, opening up searches for early dark energy and perhaps resolving the H0 tension.