Fairbairn, Malcolm

Prof. Dr. Malcolm Fairbairn
Kings College London, UK

Article-being studied: Dark Matter Hunting in 2021 —
How do you look for something when you don’t know what it is? (PDF at IPPP-Durham)
ArXiv
Google Scholar
Homepage
inSPIREHEP
Solvay Institute: Current Dark Matter Searches and the Neutrino Bound (PDF – 84 pp)
Twitter
YouTube: What is the horizon problem?

References within this website: https://81018.com/smallest-largest/

First email: 18 October 2021

Dear Prof. Dr. Malcolm Fairbairn:

I thank you for your presentation for the Planck 2021, the International Conference from the Planck Scale to Electroweak Scale. I am on page 70 of your PDF, where you say, “We are well into an era of using novel approaches to learn more about dark matter.”

We came up with a novel approach that harkens back to an IPPP group that substituted for Sir Peter Higgs for a public lecture for school children and their families. They asked the right question: “What is the smallest thing in the universe?” That picture and our discussion are online here: https://81018.com/smallest-largest/

Might we agree that Max Planck (1899) and George Johnstone Stoney (1874) were both on the right track when each calculated their base units? Even though there is some disparity about the actual numbers, the general concept stands.

Then, can the students’ question be answered, “It’s an approximation, but somewhere around the Planck or Stoney base units.”  Stepping aside the singularity issues, might the kids ask, “Well, what’s there?” And might some of the clever ones among them, respond earnestly, “An infinitesimal sphere on the order of Lemaitre’s primordial atom!”

And, what would you say to those clever students? I took them seriously and we explored it. Perhaps you can help us correct our wanderings into this rather idiosyncratic alternative reality.

Thank you so very much.

Warmly,

Bruce

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The Summary Overview:

Dark Matter Hunting in 2021 – How do you look for something when you don’t know what it is?
Presenter: FAIRBAIRN, Malcolm (King’s College London)
The Search for clues as to the nature of Dark Matter continues in more varied and novel ways than ever before and has never been more challenging nor more stimulating. In this talk I will describe a variety of approaches that have been worked on over the past years, focusing shamelessly on those I have been involved in personally. We can learn about dark matter. through observations of dwarf galaxies, by trying to explain anomalies at particle physics experiments (both collider and direct detection experiments), and also by looking at the impact of the dark sector on relics left over from the big bang in the form of nuclei and gravitational waves. I will also discuss some of the other physics which may emerge along the way and briefly comment on what we can expect from the future.

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Page 70, Dark Matter Hunting in 2021: How do you look for something when you don’t know what it is?

Prof. Dr. Malcolm Fairbairn has a great sense of humor! This is page 33 of that same presentation.