Susmita Adhikari from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Abstract: The structure and density of dark matter halos can give us key insights into fundamental physics such as the nature of dark matter and possible modifications to Einstein’s theory of gravity. The density profiles in the outskirts of dark matter halos can become extremely steep over a narrow range of radius. The location of this feature is known as the splashback radius. In the light of recent detection of splashback in the galaxy clusters I will discuss the implications of this observation as a probe for cosmology, fundamental physics and for dynamical friction in galaxy clusters.

Venue: Room 202 (Seminar room), Physics Department IIT Bombay, Powai, Mumbai