Dark Solar Wind

by Dr Jae Hyeok Chang (University of Maryland)

Thursday 22 Jun 2023, 16:00 → 17:30 Asia/Seoul

1424 in building 1 (KIAS)

Title: Dark Solar Wind

Speaker: Jae Hyeok Chang (University of Maryland)

Abstract: We study the solar emission of light dark sector particles that self-interact strongly enough to self-thermalize. The resulting outflow behaves like a fluid which accelerates under its own thermal pressure to highly relativistic bulk velocities in the solar system. Compared to the ordinary noninteracting scenario, the local outflow has at least ~10^3 higher number density and correspondingly at least ∼10^3 lower average energy per particle. We show how this generic phenomenon arises in a dark sector composed of millicharged particles strongly self-interacting via a dark photon. The millicharged plasma wind emerging in this model has novel yet predictive signatures that encourages new experimental directions. This phenomenon demonstrates how a small step away from the simplest models can lead to radically different outcomes and thus motivates a broader search for dark sector particles.

Slides_Chang.pdf

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