Title: Astrophysics shedding light on exotic light states

Speaker: Prof. Arun Thalapillil, IISER Pune

Abstract: The Standard Model of particle physics has been a hugely successful theory with many far-reaching predictions, that have been tested to exquisite precision. Nevertheless, motivated by observations and other considerations, it is widely thought to be an incomplete theory. Collider searches and cosmological observations place non-trivial constraints on physics beyond the Standard Model. Astrophysical observations, including gravitational wave searches, can play a complementary role in these new physics searches; many times surpassing collider limits by orders of magnitude. In this talk, I will try to convey a few new limits that may be placed on certain light states, from their potential non-perturbative production in extreme neutron star environments.