Aditrivaishnavi Balaji

Finding Dark Matter Subhalos

Started July 11, 2025

Abstract or project description

The prevailing ΛCDM model of cosmology predicts that structure forms hierarchically. Large dark matter halos, like the one hosting our Milky Way galaxy, are not smooth, monolithic entities but are filled with a vast population of smaller, gravitationally bound "subhalos"—the remnants of smaller halos that were accreted over cosmic time.2 The number, mass distribution, and spatial arrangement of these subhalos provide a critical and sensitive test of dark matter's properties. However, because these subhalos are dominated by dark matter, they are exceedingly difficult to detect. Strong gravitational lensing offers a unique method to find them. When a massive galaxy coincidentally aligns with a distant background galaxy, it can bend the background galaxy's light into distorted arcs or a complete ring. A dark matter subhalo orbiting the main lens galaxy, even if invisible itself, will impart its own tiny, localized gravitational perturbation onto these lensed arcs. Identifying these subtle distortions is a "needle in a haystack" problem, but one that is perfectly suited for the pattern-recognition capabilities of modern artificial intelligence.

Understanding Dementia: Exploring neurodegenerative disease through real world case studies

Started Feb. 28, 2025

Abstract or project description

Dementia refers to a loss of memory, language, problem-solving skills, and other thinking abilities that impact someone’s daily living. Currently, more than 55 million people in the world have dementia. It is projected that someone in the world develops dementia every 3 seconds. Dementia is not a single disease. It is comprised of multiple brain diseases that present differently from one another at the early stages of the disease course and have different underlying causes.

In this course, we will use clinical cases to learn about different types of dementia, unique brain changes seen in different diseases, and the diagnosis process at the dementia clinic.