Physics Department Colloquia |
Events on Friday, December 5th, 2025
- An Axion Odyssey
- Time: 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm
- Place: Chamberlin 2241
- Speaker: Andrew Long, Rice University
- Abstract: The Standard Model of the Elementary Particles stands as the crowning achievement of 20th century particle physics. It has been unerringly successful at describing the properties and interactions of the known elementary particles and forces, and with the triumphant discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012, the Standard Model is finally “complete.” This is not to say that the Standard Model is without a few loose threads, which theorists love to tug on in hopes that something will unravel. Why, for example, is the neutron’s electric dipole moment observed to be so much smaller than the theory of the strong nuclear force would allow? Moreover, astrophysical and cosmological observations have furnished overwhelming evidence for the existence of natural phenomena that cannot be described by the Standard Model. For example, what is the nature of the mysterious dark matter? In this presentation I’ll describe the physics of a hypothetical particle called the axion, which was first proposed to explain the neutron’s tiny electric dipole moment, but which has found its way into many aspects of particle cosmology: from dark matter and baryogenesis to inflation and string theory. I will survey several astrophysical, cosmological, and terrestrial probes of axion-like particles and discuss what new mysteries are waiting to be revealed.
- Host: Daniel Chung