Abstract: Studies of data from the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope have revealed surprising excesses of apparently diffuse gamma-ray emission toward the heart of our Milky Way galaxy, including the giant structures known as the Fermi Bubbles and the central glow often called the Galactic Center Excess. I will outline these signals and their properties. The latter excess in particular has garnered great interest as a possible signal of either dark matter particles colliding and annihilating, or a previously undiscovered population of pulsars in the stellar bulge. Analyses of the photon statistics of this excess have been used to argue that the pulsar interpretation is strongly favored - however, I will present recent work arguing that it may be premature to exclude a dark matter origin for the excess on these grounds. I will outline the history of our understanding of the excess and the arguments for various interpretations, describe the current status of the controversy, and discuss future paths forward.
Seminar Speaker: Tracy Slatyer, MIT
Host: André De Gouvea
Meeting Details:
Friday, February 5, 2021 at 4:00 pm (Central Time) on Zoom.
Zoom info:
Please email yassaman.shemirani@northwestern.edu if you would like access to the Zoom meeting link.
Yas Shemirani
(847) 491-7650
Email