High Energy Physics Seminar

Dark matter self-interactions have important implications for the
distributions of dark matter in the Universe, from dwarf galaxies to
galaxy clusters. In this talk, we present benchmark models that
illustrate characteristic features of dark matter that is
self-interacting through a new light mediator. These models have
self-interactions large enough to change dark matter densities in the
centers of galaxies in accord with observations, while remaining
compatible with large-scale structure data and all astrophysical
observations such as halo shapes and the Bullet Cluster. These
observations favor a mediator mass in the 1-100 MeV range and large
regions of this parameter space are accessible to direct detection
experiments.