In the early 1980s, axions and Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) were identified as promising dark matter candidates. The last forty years have seen a spectacularly successful experimental program attempting to discover the WIMPs, with sensitivity that has by now improved by many orders of magnitude compared to the earliest results. The parallel program to search for axions has made less progress and has reached the necessary sensitivity only over a very limited mass range. However, progress has recently accelerated, with the invention of many new axion detection techniques that may eventually provide a definitive answer to the question of whether the dark matter is made of axions. I will review some of these new developments, including ADMX- Extended Frequency Range and Broadband Reflector Experiment for Axion Detection (BREAD).
Andrew Sonnenschein, Physicist, Fermilab
Host: Andrew Geraci