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Description
Most of the matter in the Universe is dark, and is suspected to be in the form of particle relics from the Big Bang. A plausible candidate is the axion, an extraordinarily light and weakly coupling particle arising from theories explaining CP-conservation in the strong force.
Experiments are 'listening' for the axion by their conversion to microwave photons in a resonant cavity permeated by a strong magnetic field. These detectors are by far the most sensitive radio receivers in the world, capable of detecting signals on the order of a trillionth of a trillionth of a watt. The Axion Dark Matter eXperiment (ADMX) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has already published limits on axionic dark matter constituting our galactic halo for plausible models, both for the expected fully virialized component as well as for possible fine-structure in phase space. The search is driving two technologies that will soon make them much more sensitive yet, i.e. quantum-limited SQUID amplifiers, and Rydberg-atom single-quantum detectors.
Organiser(s): Rolf Landua / DSU
Note: * Tea & coffee will be served at 16:00.
Experiments are 'listening' for the axion by their conversion to microwave photons in a resonant cavity permeated by a strong magnetic field. These detectors are by far the most sensitive radio receivers in the world, capable of detecting signals on the order of a trillionth of a trillionth of a watt. The Axion Dark Matter eXperiment (ADMX) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has already published limits on axionic dark matter constituting our galactic halo for plausible models, both for the expected fully virialized component as well as for possible fine-structure in phase space. The search is driving two technologies that will soon make them much more sensitive yet, i.e. quantum-limited SQUID amplifiers, and Rydberg-atom single-quantum detectors.
Organiser(s): Rolf Landua / DSU
Note: * Tea & coffee will be served at 16:00.