PI Public Lecture Series:
Title: The Dark Side of the Universe
Abstract: The ordinary atoms that make up the known universe, from our bodies and the air we breathe to the planets and stars, constitute only 5 percent of all matter and energy in the cosmos. The remaining 95 percent is a recipe of 25 percent dark matter and 70 percent dark energy, both nonluminous components whose nature remains a mystery.
In her March 2 public lecture, Katherine Freese will recount the hunt for dark matter, from the discoveries of visionary scientists like Fritz Zwicky, the Swiss astronomer who coined the term "dark matter" in 1933, to the deluge of data today from underground laboratories, satellites in space, and the Large Hadron Collider.
Theorists contend that dark matter consists of fundamental particles known as WIMPs, or weakly interacting massive particles. Billions of them pass through our bodies every second without us even realizing it, yet their gravitational pull is capable of whirling stars and gas at breakneck speeds around the centres of galaxies, and bending light from distant bright objects.
Freese will provide an overview of this cosmic cocktail, including the evidence for the existence of dark matter in galaxies. Many cosmologists believe we are on the verge of solving this mystery and this talk will provide the foundation needed to fully fathom this epochal moment in humankind's quest to understand the universe.
The George E. Uhlenbeck Professor of Physics at the University of Michigan, Freese also recently completed a term as the Director of Nordita - the Institute for Theoretical Physics of the Nordic countries in Stockholm. She has been a fellow or visiting professor at physics organizations around the world, including the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, CERN, the Max Planck Institute, and Perimeter Institute. Freese is also a Fellow of the American Physical Society.