William DeRocco (UC Santa Cruz)

1:00pm Monday March 25, 2024
Geoff Opat Seminar Room

Exploring the dark side with high-cadence microlensing

Microlensing is a powerful technique to observe non-luminous bodies, both within and beyond the Standard Model. In this talk, I will discuss how existing and upcoming microlensing surveys can provide a new window into both planetary formation and the nature of dark matter. I will cover several ongoing projects that range from characterizing the Galactic abundance of free-floating planets to searching for primordial black holes and other exotic subpopulations with the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.