Astro/High Energy Theory Seminar: James Cline

Speaker: James Cline (McGill University)

Title: A tale of two dark photons

Abstract: I will discuss two uses of dark photons. First, as a mediator between dark matter and neutrinos, their interactions are constrained by IceCube observations of high-energy neutrinos from two active galactic nuclei. The presence of a dark matter spike surrounding the central black hole that powers the AGNs can lead to strong limits. Second, as a dark matter candidate, I revisit a proposed production mechanism: stochastic fluctuations of the dark Higgs field during inflation displace it from the minimum of its potential, and the fluctuations later decay into dark photons. This gives predictions for the mass and kinetic mixing of the dark photons, that could be tested in future direct detection experiments.