UPEI Physics Department presents seminar about dark matter on March 20

Dr. James Taylor, of the University of Waterloo, will give a public seminar called What is dark matter? And why should we care? in the KC Irving Chemistry Centre, Room 104, at UPEI on Friday, March 20, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.

Taylor is an assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Waterloo. His research interests include dark matter, cosmological structure formation, galaxy formation, galaxy dynamics, galaxy clusters, massive black holes, cosmology, computational & theoretical astrophysics.

'Many independent strands of evidence from astronomical observations indicate that roughly 85% of the matter in the universe is ‘dark matter', a gas of weakly interacting particles undetected in current particle accelerators and unaccounted for in the ‘standard model' of particle physics,' says Taylor. 'The detection and identification of dark matter in the lab has proven impossibly difficult in the past. Now, after many decades of diligent work, we may be on the verge of a revolution in this field.'

During his presentation, he will review the astrophysical evidence for dark matter, the theoretical candidates for this strange substance, and the instruments and experiments poised to reveal its true nature, opening a new chapter in fundamental physics.

Taylor's seminar is part of a lecture tour of the Maritime provinces, sponsored by the Canadian Association of Physicists.