The WIMP Miracle

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There's no reason why in all the possible laws of physics all the particles out there have to be easily noticeable to you, that's just not how the universe is set up. A particle physicist can come up with plausible models for particles that would be cold, dark, etc. and also have the right relic abundance. WIMPs are weakly interacting massive particles. They interact by electromagnetism or some other force but it doesn't matter if they're electromagnetist nor anti-magnetic. The strength of the interactions you need for a cold, dark,. relic particle to have the right abundance has been identified as basically the interaction strength of the weak interactions of particle physics.

Physics is in crisis, what else is new? That's what we hear in certain corners, anyway, usually pointed at "fundamental" physics of particles and fields. (Condensed matter and biophysics etc. are just fine.) In this solo podcast I ruminate on the unusual situation fundamental physics finds itself in, where we have a theoretical understanding that fits almost all the data, but which nobody believes to be the final answer. I talk about how we got here, and argue that it's not really a "crisis" in any real sense. But there are ways I think the academic community could handle the problem better, especially by making more space for respectable but minority approaches to deep puzzles.

Blog post with transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2023/07/31/245-solo-the-crisis-in-physics/

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