On 28/04/2026, at 1:15 PM, in room 2011 of the Faculty of Physics, University of Białystok, dr hab. Piotr Deuar, prof IF PAN, will give a lecture entitled:
„Scalar field dark matter from the perspective of ultracold atomic physics. ”
Tomasz Karpiuk
Andrzej Maziewski
„Scalar field dark matter from the perspective of ultracold atomic physics. ”
dr hab. Piotr Deuar, prof IF PAN
I will introduce the topic of scalar field (or "fuzzy") dark matter, a hypothesis known in the community for a decade or two in which dark matter consists of a Bose-Einstein condensate or matter wave field of ultralight particles. At large scales (galaxy or larger) the predictions of this model and the standard "cold dark matter" model agree, but scalar field dark matter holds great promise to solve vexing issues such as the much discussed cuspy halo problem in which central densities are too peaked compared to astronomical observations. At "small" scales of the order of thousands or tens of thousands of light years the superfluid nature of scalar field dark matter provides different predictions than the standard dark matter model, and for example does not produce the excessively peaked central densities. In collaboration with partners at Newcastle University we have been looking at the scalar field dark matter model from a novel, more ultracold-quantum matter-like, perspective. I will tell about our preliminary investigations, concerned with the properties of the nonequilibrium dynamics of a dark matter halo. We are particularly interested in features that could potentially lead to observables that distinguish the predictions of scalar field and cold dark matter models, as well as for classifying dark matter halos into a life-cycle diagram analogous to the Hertzprung-Russell diagram for main sequence stars.
