Could the DM be axions and why does it matter?

Speaker: Renée Hložek (Dunlap Institute - University of Toronto) In Person and zoom

Zoom Recording Passcode: QU&5z5u^

Ultra-light axions are a promising dark matter candidate, well motivated by high energy physics. While detection experiments hold great promise for axion detection, small-scale measurements from the cosmic microwave background (CMB) provide a window into the dark sector that is not probed by detector experiments.  I will present a range of efforts to constrain axion physics with cosmological probes: from CMB constraints from experiments like the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT), measurements of galaxy clustering like the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) and the Dark Energy Survey (DES), and high-z probes such as the UV luminosity function.