Alexander Wijangco with Glenn Starkman

Constraining Dark Matter with X-Rays

Dark matter is a generic term for an exotic class of particles that might explain the observed gravitational movements of stars and galaxies. However, despite the best efforts of several experiments, dark matter particles have gone undetected and the constraints which allow the possibility of these particles continue to become stricter. However, a possibility that has been less explored is whether dark matter particles can exist in excited states; particularly if they can reach these states by interacting with normal matter. If so, then evidence for such a process could be detected through byproducts of the eventual decay of a dark matter particle from an excited state to a ground state, such as x-ray emission. This project will examine the hypothetical possibility of such a process, constraints that can be placed upon it with existing data, and possible methods of the detection for such a process.