Baryons and Non Conventional Dark Matter

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The microphysical nature of dark matter (particle mass, number of species, interaction strength) is one of the most fundamental questions in physics. The current paradigm is Cold Dark Matter (CDM), but the archetypal CDM candidates, the Weakly Interactive Massive Particles, still evade direct detection, placing the Standard Model of particle physics in difficulty. Powerful indirect tests of the CDM model focus on the macroscopic mass distribution of Dark Matter in the Universe. In particular, CDM makes a specific prediction about the mass hierarchy of dark matter haloes for halo masses ranging from Earth mass to galactic superclusters. Detecting any deviation from the CDM prediction would be a significant step towards understanding the nature of Dark Matter. This proposal is to develop new statistical approaches to constrain the mass hierarchy of haloes in a new mass regime, down to the mass scale of small galaxies, where the predictions of CDM are the cleanest and strongest. To achieve this, it will use the world's largest current and upcoming astronomical surveys. Critical to this proposal is the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), which will be operational in 2 years and which will accumulate data for the next 10 years. Trainees will have a leading role in the proposed projects and short terms objectives will focus on resolving technical issues with instrumental systematics effects and theoretical modeling. A new class of dark matter models, called quark nuggets, is an exciting alternative to CDM in that it predicts a hierarchy of haloes identical to that of CDM, but where dark matter is also strongly interacting with regular matter in baryon rich environments. This research program will investigate the astrophysical signatures of the quark nuggets model. The proposal has the potential to discover something new and fundamental about dark matter. It will shed a new light on the role of warm and hot gas in structure formation. The long-term objectives will focus on the implementation of the project within the upcoming large facilities, e.g. to measure Dark Energy and the mass of neutrinos. The proposed research will contribute to maintaining Canada as a leading country in observational cosmology.