Cosmology and Gravitation

The spectrum of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) is known to be extremely close to a perfect blackbody. However, even within standard cosmology several processes occurring in the early Universe lead to distortions of the CMB at a level that might become observable in the future. This could open an exciting new window to early Universe physics. In my talk I will then explain in more detail why the cooling of matter in the early Universe causes a negative mu- and y-type distortion and how the damping of primordial small-scale perturbations before recombination could allow placing interesting constraints on different inflationary models.

I will introduce the theory and experimental technique of extra-solar planet observation by the gravitational microlensing and give a report on recent results. Then I will discuss the wave optics features in the gravitational microlensing, the analogy of this effect in the astronomical scales to the Young's double slit experiment. Finally I will discuss about the possibility of observation of diffraction patterns in the microlensing experiment.

Tidal stripping of dark matter from subhalos falling into the Milky Way produces narrow, cold tidal streams as well as more spatially extended ``debris flows'' in the form of shells, sheets, and plumes.Here we focus on the debris flow in the Via Lactea II simulation, and show that this incompletely phase-mixed material exhibits distinctive high velocity behavior. Unlike tidal streams, which may not necessarily intersect the Earth's location, debris flow is spatially uniform at 8 kpc and thus guaranteed to be present in the dark matter flux incident on direct detection experiments. At Earth-frame speeds greater than 450 km/s, debris flow comprises more than half of the dark matter at the Sun's location, and up to 80% at even higher speeds. Therefore, debris flow is most important for experiments that are particularly sensitive to the high speed tail of the dark matter distribution, such as searches for light or inelastic dark matter or experiments with directional sensitivity. We show that debris flow yields a distinctive recoil energy spectrum and a broadening of the distribution of incidence direction.