Physics Colloquium, March 5, 2002

Illuminating the dark side of the universe

Bernard Sadoulet, Professor of Physics, University of California at Berkeley, and Senior Scientist, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Director of the Institute for Nuclear and Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, University of California

After a short reminder of the evidence for the dominance of dark matter and dark energy in the universe, I will review the current laboratory efforts to decipher the nature of dark matter. I will describe in particular our Cryogenic Dark Matter Search for Weakly Interactive Massive Particles, which uses a combination of low temperature, condensed matter and particle physics methods. I will finish by a few remarks on the challenge of detecting the dark energy in the laboratory.

3.30 p.m., Smith Laboratory, Room 1005

Refreshments served in Smith 1094 at 3:00 p.m.