Ultralight Dark Matter

Bad Honnef Physics School

31 Jul - 05 Aug 2022

Where:

Physikzentrum Bad Honnef

Scientific organizers:

Prof. Dr. Arne Wickenbrock, Prof. Dr. Dmitry Budker, University of Mainz, Germany • Prof. Dr. Derek Jackson Kimball, California State University, USA

In recent years, the urgency of understanding the nature of dark matter, whose mass in our galaxy significantly exceeds that of the normal matter, has become particularly clear. In view of the fact that the weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), the primary dark matter candidate for decades, have not been seen, there is great interest in looking for alternative frameworks, particularly, that of ultralight bosonic fields. The (scientific rather than bosonic) field is "bubbling" with new ideas, both on the side of theoretical advances and new experimental concepts. The purpose of this school is to orient newcomers to the field, especially graduate students and post-docs and, in addition to formal lectures, to provide an opportunity for informal interactions with some of the leading scientists working on the cutting edge of ultralight bosonic dark matter research.