Speaker
Description
Low-mass dark matter halos perturb the Einstein rings of strong gravitational lenses. By means of high-resolution imaging and precision modeling, we can directly measure the masses, abundances, and internal density profiles of these halos. In this talk I will present a systematic overview of our multi-year effort to detect dark subhalos: from the development of the PyAutoLens software suite, through mock-lens validation driven by hydrodynamical simulations, to the discoveries of several dark-subhalo candidates in HST and JWST data. I will focus on how these perturbations serve as “dark-matter probes” to distinguish among cold, warm, and self-interacting dark matter (SIDM) models. In particular, I will report our latest constraint on the dark-matter self-interaction cross section derived from a compact subhalo identified in the SLACS0946, the "Jackpot" lens system.
