Speaker
Description
Axions are the best dark matter candidate, as the only one that
solves a fundamental particle physics problem (the strong QCD problem)
unrelated to any dark matter observation and, at the same time, naturally
predicts the production of cold dark matter with a density consistent with
the observed one.
A summary of detection methods is presented: in physics experiments, axions in
the dark matter may be directly detected via the inverse Primakoff effect,
with resonant cavities placed in strong magnetic fields; high-energy axions
produced in the Sun can also be detected in the same experiments with X-ray
detectors. In astronomical observations, axions produced in stars may have
measurable effects for the evolution of stars, and radio observations may
detect stimulated decay of axions to photon pairs. Most theories for the
production of axions in the early Universe predict the formation of bound
minihalos of axions with masses as low as those of asteroids, which may be
detectable in special observations of gravitational lensing with advanced
observatories like the James Webb Space Telescope or the Extremely Large
Telescope.
