Dr. Douglas Finkbeiner
Harvard

University of Florida Astronomy Colloquium - Oct. 3rd, 2007

New Galactic microwave emission mechanisms observed by WMAP

In addition to revolutionizing CMB cosmology, WMAP has revealed two surprises about microwave emission from the ISM. 1. The spinning dust emission from very small grains, previously observed by other experiments has been confirmed, but with a new twist. The warm ionized medium (WIM) contains significant spinning dust emission, complicating attempts to model the CMB foregrounds with the classic "template-based" methods. 2. Microwave emission in the inner Milky Way exceeds that expected from thermal dust, spinning dust, bremsstrahlung (free-free), and synchrotron, and is uncorrelated with any of the usual spatial templates. I will characterize this emission and discuss possible sources, focusing on the possibility of synchrotron emission from end products of WIMP dark matter annihilation.