Dark Matter Spikes: Sharpening Our Understanding of the First Stars with Gamma-Rays

by Dr Pearl Sandick (Physics, U. Texas, Austin)

Tuesday Nov 16, 2010, 3:00 PM → 4:00 PM Pacific/Honolulu

417A (Watanabe Hall)

The dark matter spikes surrounding black hole remnants of the very first stars are examined in light of recent data from the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope (FGST). Spikes that survive today in the Milky Way halo may be sites of significant dark matter annihilation. Standard formation scenarios for the first stars are considered, as well as the possibility of a Dark Star phase, during which dark matter annihilations provide the power source for the star prior to nuclear fusion. In this talk, I will discuss the interplay of dark matter and baryonic gas as the first stars are forming, and how we can use measurements of the dark matter annihilation products in remnant spikes today to learn about the properties of particle dark matter and the first stars.