TAPIR Seminar

The problem of the physical nature of dark matter drives much of the research in physics and cosmology today, and a wealth of cosmological, astrophysical, and experimental measurements---existing and upcoming---have the potential to shed light on this unknown. In this talk, I will address the question of what we can or cannot learn using data from direct detection experiments, in particular focusing on an analysis approach that might help identify the correct description of dark matter-baryon interactions. I will then discuss what cosmological measurements have to say about the very same physics probed by direct detection, focusing on the exquisite complementarity between the cosmic-microwave-background anisotropy observations and lab experiments.