Erin Hayes (C '22) works with Dr. Masao Sako in the Department of Physics & Astronomy. The goal of her research is to determine whether or not black holes can make up all of the dark matter in the Milky Way. Though impossible to see directly, black holes can be detected if they pass between an observer and a star. The immense gravity of the black hole bends the light of the star, causing it to appear brighter than normal to the observer, in an event called gravitational microlensing. Using computational methods, she searches for microlensing events in data from the Dark Energy Survey to determine the density of black holes in our galaxy. Based on the number of events found, she will be able to estimate how much of the total dark matter is made up of black holes! In summer 2019, Erin's research took her to Arizona to present a poster at the 2019 LSST Community Conference as part of the Undergraduate Research Program thanks to support from Dr. Sako and the Physics Department.
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October 2020
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