DM2 - Results and Strategies in Dark Matter Detection |
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Speaker |
van Bibber, Karl |
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| Talk Title |
Progress in Searches for Dark Matter Axions |
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Abstract |
After nearly four decades, Peccei-Quinn symmetry and the axion that it implies, remains the most compelling solution to protect the Strong interaction from CP-violating effects. As realized soon after the original theoretical work, a very light axion also represents an ideal dark matter candidate, and powerful and elegant experiments were conceived and carried out to search for dark matter axions based on the axion-photon coupling. In particular, as described by Sikivie, dark matter axions may be resonantly converted to a RF signal in a microwave cavity permeated by a magnetic field. ADMX and its technology platform ADMX-HF (High Frequency) represent the latest and most powerful incarnation of this concept, and aim to cover much of the 1-100 micro-eV range with the sensitivity to detect axions for the most conservative couplings. Recently, a novel NMR-based scheme has been proposed to look for axions inspired by string theory in the nano-eV to micro-eV range, and an R&D effort is underway to prepare an experiment with cosmically relevant sensitivity. Novel schemes have also been conceived and prototyped to cover the range between 0.1 and 1 meV. Thus the experimental situation is bright and one can hope that the axion will be discovered or excluded as a significant component of our local dark matter within the next decade. |
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