DARK MATTER DAY 2020
Date
Saturday, October 31st, 2020
Start time
11:00 Perth (AWST)
12:30 Darwin (ACST)
13:00 Brisbane (AEST)
13:30 Adelaide (ACDT)
14:00 Melbourne, Hobart, Canberra, Sydney (AEDT)
Accessing the event
Webinar Zoom link now closed
Link to gather.town now closed
Link to the virtual lab tour now closed
The event will be based in a custom virtual environment built in gather.town. Access to gather.town will be from 14:00 AEDT.
Please note that gather.town requires either the Chrome or Firefox web browser, so you will need to install one of these prior to the event in order to use the gather.town environment.
However, that is not necessary in order to view the presentations, as we are planning to run them via a Zoom webinar.
Please note that, when opening the webinar link given above, your browser should give you the option of opening Zoom in a browser window (“Having issues with Zoom client? Join from Your Browser”).
If you do wish to run Zoom in a browser window, and your browser first asks you to download and install the Zoom client, cancel that download and then click on the “Join from Your Browser” link.
If you already have Zoom installed and wish to use it, then proceed with joining the webinar as you would for a typical Zoom meeting.
Welcome to gather.town - Code of Conduct
The ARC Centre of Excellence for Dark Matter Particle Physics is committed to providing an environment that is diverse, tolerant and respectful.
Attendees are reminded to ensure that all interactions are conducted upon a foundation of kindness and respect.
For example, gender, ethnicity, cultural background, sexual orientation, age, disability and other personal characteristics should not be impediments to your full engagement and enjoyment. We celebrate the fact that diversity enhances our Centre.
Aggressive language or behaviour is not acceptable. In the unlikely event of an incident, there are a number of ways it can be addressed. Individuals are free to mute or block other users, so they can no longer interact with you. For more serious infringements, please contact any of the 'DME xxx' personnel, as they have the ability to remove users from the space.
By using this space you agree to abide by this code of conduct.
Schedule
All the following times are in AEDT (Melbourne, Hobart, Canberra, Sydney). Please be sure to adjust these to your own time zone!
14:00 (start time + 0 hours) Doors open in our DMD gather.town (30 minutes for exploration and chatting).
14:30 (start time + 0.5 hours) Evidence for Dark Matter - Dr. Ciaran O'Hare (University of Sydney)
14:45 (start time + 0.75 hours) Theory of Dark Matter - Dr. Michael Baker (University of Melbourne)
15:00 (start time + 1 hour) Q&A (~10 minutes)
15:15 (start time + 1.25 hours) Direct Detection - Dr. Ben McAllister (University of Western Australia)
15:30 (start time + 1.5 hours) Collider Searches - Cate MacQueen (University of Melbourne)
15:45 (start time + 1.75 hours) Q&A (~10 minutes)
16:15 (start time + 2.25 hours) Guided 3D virtual lab tour - Dr. Ben McAllister (University of Western Australia). The guided tour will be given within the Zoom webinar. Please note that you can visit the 3D Virtual Lab at any time by clicking the link above. The 3D Virtual Lab also will be accessible from within gather.town.
17:00 (start time + 3 hours) Doors close
We are planning to make recordings of the presentations available after the Webinar. Please refer back here for more details soon…
Biographical notes
Host : Professor Nicole Bell
Nicole is a Professor at the University of Melbourne. She's a theoretical physicist who works at the interface of particle physics with astrophysics and cosmology, with broad expertise in dark matter physics spanning direct detection, indirect detection, collider searches and beyond. She is the Melbourne Node Manager of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Dark Matter Particle Physics and leads the Centre’s Theory Program.
https://findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/profile/19687-nicole-bell
Dr. Michael Baker
Michael is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne. He's a theoretical physicist studying new ideas for dark matter and its behaviour in the early universe, in direct and indirect detection experiments, and at colliders. He completed his PhD at the University of Oxford and has held research positions at the University of Valencia, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and the University of Zurich.
(@physics_baker | findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/profile/850642-michael-baker)
Cate MacQueen
Cate is in the final year of her PhD in Experimental Particle Physics. She works specifically with the Belle II detector, attached to the SuperKEKB electron-positron collider in Japan, and her research has an emphasis on finding dark matter in particle accelerator collisions. As part of her PhD research, she has travelled to Japan, South Korea, and Canada. Before her PhD, she completed a MSc at The University of Melbourne with a thesis titled 'Shedding Light on Dark Matter: The Search for Dark Matter in Radiative Processes at Belle'. She also completed two BSc degrees (Astrophysics and Pure Mathematics) at New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro, New Mexico, USA.
(caitlin.macqueen@unimelb.edu.au | @cmqcentaurus )
Dr. Ben McAllister
Ben is a researcher at the University of Western Australia. He mostly works on axion dark matter detection – specifically The ORGAN Experiment, one of the major discovery machines within the Centre of Excellence for Dark Matter Particle Physics. When he isn’t in the lab looking for dark matter, he’s usually somewhere else talking about it!
Contact: @drbtmcallister, ben.mcallister@uwa.edu.au
Dr. Ciaran O’Hare
Ciaran is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Sydney. He works on the particle physics and astrophysics of dark matter. He is particularly interested in developing novel ideas to detect dark matter interactions in the laboratory, as well as improving our understanding of dark matter using massive surveys of the Milky Way galaxy. He held positions in the UK and Spain before moving to Sydney in 2019.
(@cajohare | cajoha.re)
Technical staff
Nicholas Leerdam (University of Adelaide, University of Melbourne) - Gather.town guru
Dr. Paddy McGee (University of Adelaide) - website
Resources
Here are links to a variety of resources concerning the search for Dark Matter, as well as a helping of other aspects of particle physics…
Why dark matter matters: Ben McAllister on TedX (Perth) talks about dark matter in general, and about axion search at the University of Western Australia - Youtube
The Naked Scientist podcast on May 14th 2019 - various topics, including dark matter
“What is Dark Matter?”: PHD Comics’ graphical exploration of the quest for DM - Youtube
“Looking at Dark Matter”: a discussion of the axion research at UWA - particle.scitech.org.au
Posts on this website about Direct Detection
DMD Internationally
As mentioned, Dark Matter Day is celebrated across the world. For information on what’s happening overseas, please see the Events List on darkmatterday.com.