As the gravitational evidence for the existence of dark matter accumulates inexorably, the particle identity of dark matter remains mysterious. One of the best theoretically-motivated dark matter candidates, with some of the most interesting experimental signals, is the axion. Axions are expected to interact very weakly with electromagnetism, which leads to the possibility of detecting axions through conversion to photons in strong magnetic fields. I will review the status of experiments aiming to detect axions on Earth ("direct detection"), including ADMX, MADMAX, and ABRACADABRA, as well as a recent proposal to detect axions from astrophysical sources ("indirect detection") using narrow-band radio emissions from neutron stars.
1080 Physics Research Building - Smith Seminar Room - reception at 3:30 pm in the Atrium Department of Physics physics@osu.edu America/New_York publicAs the gravitational evidence for the existence of dark matter accumulates inexorably, the particle identity of dark matter remains mysterious. One of the best theoretically-motivated dark matter candidates, with some of the most interesting experimental signals, is the axion. Axions are expected to interact very weakly with electromagnetism, which leads to the possibility of detecting axions through conversion to photons in strong magnetic fields. I will review the status of experiments aiming to detect axions on Earth ("direct detection"), including ADMX, MADMAX, and ABRACADABRA, as well as a recent proposal to detect axions from astrophysical sources ("indirect detection") using narrow-band radio emissions from neutron stars.
