Topic of Research Seminar: The mysterious baryons in the Universe — A Hunt for the baryonic dark matter

Abstract: Dark matter has been a topic of interest in Astronomy and Astrophysics since Zwicky’s observations of the galaxies within the Coma cluster. Vera Rubin’s flat rotational curves of the galaxies added a cherry on the cake. These curves have shown the existence of much more matter outside the galactic disks – these outskirts of the galaxies do not shine –I call them Ghostsin the Heavens. These regions of the galaxies are called dark halosor galactic halos. The standard cosmological model (ΛCDM) suggests that ~5% of the Universe is made of baryons, but we can only see only half of them. This is the so-called “missing baryon problem”. It is suggested that dark halos have some fraction of these missing baryons, but in what form and fraction are still open questions. To answer them, one has to understand the dynamics and composition of these dark halos. In this talk, I will be summarizing how we were able to study dark halos to hunt missing baryons and in future what we intend to achieve to solve the missing baryon problem.

Subject Field of Topic: Astrophysics/Astronomy, and astrophotography

Name of Speaker: Dr. Noraiz Tahir

Professorial Rank of Speaker: Assistant Professor School of Natural Sciences (SNS – NUST)

Email of Speaker: [email protected]

Affiliation of Speaker: School of Natural Sciences (SNS – NUST)

Date and Venue: (Thursday) 17 December 2024, 15:20 hrs, CR # 202, New Building SNS, School of Natural Sciences, NUST Islamabad