SMILE

Search for Milli-lenses to discriminate between dark matter models

Grant period2022-07-01 - 2027-06-30
Funding bodyEuropean Union
Call numberERC-2021-STG
Grant number101040021
IdentifierG:(EU-Grant)101040021

Note: One of the most compelling mysteries in both cosmology and particle physics is the nature of Dark Matter (DM). We propose to investigate this problem using strong gravitational lensing of active galaxies on the key but poorly-explored milliarcsecond scales. Gravitational lensed images with angular separation on milliarcsecond scales probe gravitational lens systems where the lens is a compact object with mass in the range 10^6 - 10^9 solar masses. This mass range is particularly critical for the widely accepted Lambda-CDM cosmological model, which predicts many more DM sub-halos, i.e., DM halos on sub-galactic scales (masses below ~ 10^11 solar masses), than currently observed. The most direct way to explore these small angular scales is through the high-resolution of radio Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI). We propose to use VLBI data on a complete and large sample of active galaxies (~ 5000 sources) to search for gravitational lens systems on milliarcsecond scales. Given that no gravitational lenses on milliarsecond scales have yet been found, if any of the gravitational lens candidates that this search will produce is indeed confirmed as a true gravitational lens system, this would be a first and a major discovery. A null result instead will allow us to infer a new constraint on the abundance of compact objects in the mass range of interest, with over an order of magnitude better precision than in previous studies, and tighter than the number of 10^6 - 10^9 solar masses subhalos predicted by Lambda-CDM. Such a constraint could help discriminate between DM models that predict different numbers of sub-halos in this mass range. It could also help to constrain a possible contribution of primordial black holes as a DM component.
   

Recent Publications

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http://join2-wiki.gsi.de/foswiki/pub/Main/Artwork/join2_logo100x88.png Journal Article  ;  ;  ; et al
First characterization of the emission behavior of Mrk 421 from radio to very high-energy gamma rays with simultaneous X-ray polarization measurements
Astronomy and astrophysics 684, A127 () [10.1051/0004-6361/202347988]  GO OpenAccess  Download fulltext Files  Download fulltextFulltext by arXiv.org BibTeX | EndNote: XML, Text | RIS

http://join2-wiki.gsi.de/foswiki/pub/Main/Artwork/join2_logo100x88.png Preprint  ;  ;  ; et al
First characterization of the emission behavior of Mrk 421 from radio to very high-energy gamma rays with simultaneous X-ray polarization measurements
 GO arXiv  Download fulltext Files  Download fulltextFulltext by arXiv.org BibTeX | EndNote: XML, Text | RIS

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 Record created 2023-02-23, last modified 2023-02-23



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