Speaker
Prof.
Pierre Sikivie
(University of Florida)
Description
OKC COLLOQUIUM
The axion is a hypothetical particle proposed, almost 40
years ago, to explain why the strong interactions are P and
CP invariant. Additional motivation for its existence is due
to the fact that a cold population of axions is naturally
produced in the early universe. These cold axions may
constitute the dark matter today. I'll briefly review the
limits on the axion from particle physics, stellar evolution
and cosmology. The various constraints suggest that the
axion mass is in the micro-eV to milli-eV range. In this
range, its interactions are so weak that the axion was once
thought invisible. Nonetheless a number of methods have been
proposed to search for so-called "invisible" axions. I'll
describe these techniques, the experiments that have
implemented them, and the results that have been obtained so
far.
Primary author
Prof.
Pierre Sikivie
(University of Florida)
