Exploring the Nature of Dark Matter with Early Rubin Observatory Data

数据来自Vera C。Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time（LSST）可以帮助理解暗物质晕，即包含引力束缚物质的空间区域，这些物质很难被探测到。该项目将使用鲁宾天文台作为“暗物质望远镜”，使用引力透镜（光通过大质量物体时的弯曲）在宇宙时间内研究亚星系尺度的这些晕，使研究人员能够识别暗物质晕，它们的质量如此之低，以至于它们没有可见的恒星。这将有助于我们理解暗物质粒子的基本性质。 该项目还涉及继续发展和支持一个本科生研究奖学金，以纪念在美国获得物理学博士学位的第四位非洲裔美国人Hubert Mack Thaxton博士。 Thaxton奖学金每年为多名学生提供有偿物理研究机会。研究人员将使用两种观测技术，即强引力透镜异常和恒星流扰动，来研究低质量暗物质晕的丰度和性质。对于强透镜部分，研究人员将把联合收割机鲁宾天文台的数据与无线电勘测和甚长基线无线电干涉测量相结合，以实现对强透镜射电噪声活动星系核的毫角秒尺度分辨率成像，从而最大限度地提高对低质量暗物质晕的灵敏度。这些晕提供了独特的优势来限制暗物质的微物理性质，因为它们的演化较少受到复杂的重子物理学的影响，而且许多非最小暗物质性质在低质量晕上留下了最明显的特征。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Data from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) can help to understand dark matter halos, regions of space that contain gravitationally bound matter that is very hard to detect. This project will use the Rubin Observatory as a "dark matter telescope" to study these halos at sub-galactic scales across cosmic time using gravitational lensing (the bending of light as it passes a massive object), allowing investigators to identify dark matter halos that have such low mass that they do not host visible stars. This will contribute to our understanding of the fundamental properties of dark matter particles. This project also involves the continued development and support of an undergraduate research fellowship honoring Dr. Hubert Mack Thaxton, the fourth African American to receive a PhD in physics in the United States. The Thaxton fellowship provides paid physics research opportunities to multiple students each year. The investigators will use two observational techniques, namely strong gravitational lensing anomalies and stellar stream perturbations, to study the abundance and properties of low-mass dark matter halos. For the strong lensing component, investigators will combine Rubin Observatory data with radio surveys and very long baseline radio interferometry to achieve milli-arcsecond scale resolution imaging of strongly lensed radio-loud active galactic nuclei to maximize sensitivity to low-mass dark matter halos. These halos offer unique advantages to constrain the microphysical properties of dark matter because their evolution is less affected by complicated baryonic physics and because many non-minimal dark matter properties leave the most conspicuous signatures on low-mass halos.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.