Speaker: Adriana Dropulic, Princeton University Department of Physics graduate student
Talk title: "Searching for Dark Matter in the Milky Way"
Abstract: It is well-understood from Vera Rubin’s investigation of rotation curves of spiral galaxies that the majority of matter in galaxies is not visible. It is unknown; it is “dark matter.” These spiral galaxies, like the Milky Way, formed by absorbing smaller galaxies during violent “galaxy mergers,” which left stars from the merging galaxy strewn across the Milky Way. In this talk, we will learn that these stars hold important clues that can help us understand our Galaxy’s formation history, and that by using a combination of astroparticle physics and machine learning, we can begin to decipher properties of this mysterious “dark matter.”

The EDI committee for undergraduate recruitment is organizing this summer research talk series aimed at undergraduates. The goal of this series is to have graduate students and post-docs give accessible talks about their research and how they got involved in their particular field. This is a great opportunity to get introduced to various research topics and to get familiar with different aspects of being a practicing physicist!