Speaker
Pierre Sikivie
(University of Florida)
Description
Electromagnetic radiation with angular frequency half the
axion mass stimulates the decay of dark matter axions and
produces an echo, i.e. faint electromagnetic radiation
traveling in the opposite direction. Thus one may search
for axion dark matter by sending out to space a powerful
beam of electromagnetic radiation and listening for its
echo. The method is particularly attractive if the Earth
is bathed in a cold axion flow of known direction. The
Caustic Ring Model of the Milky Way halo predicts such a
cold flow with high local density, called the Big Flow. The direction of the Big Flow is determined from triangular
features in the IRAS and GAIA maps of the Milky Way with a
precision of order 0.5 degree of arc.
